Skip to main content

Gotu cola (Centella asiatica)

Pegagan or gotu cola (Centella asiatica) is a species of plants in Apiaceae, an annual herb that grows and flowering throughout the year, growing vines, wild in many plantations, fields, roadside and paddy fields, widely used as ground cover, vegetables, snacks and drug.

C. asiatica has vines, many branches and each will form new plants. The leaves are shaped like a kidney where at the tip of the jagged edge it is located around the stem.

Dlium Gotu cola (Centella asiatica)

Flowers appear on the armpits of leaves and continue to be shaped like an umbrella, white or pink, hermaphrodite, 3 mm with five to six corolla lobes. Each flower in two green bracts, produces five stamens. Fruit that is oval shaped, has a bitter but fragrant taste.

Gotu cola has several varieties including red gotu cola and green gotu cola. Red gotu cola or stone gotu cola is commonly found in rocky, dry and open areas, growing vines with stolon and has no stem, but has rhizoma.

Green gotu cola is often found in paddy fields and between grasses, damp and open places or somewhat shaded. Green gotu cola has four sub-varieties are kembang gotu cola, beurit gotu cola, gunung gotu cola dan air gotu cola.

Pegangan contains asiaticoside, thankuniside, isothankuniside, madecassoside, brahmoside, brahmic acid, brahminoside, madasiatic acid, meso-inositol, centelloside, carotenoids, hydrocotylin, vellarine and tannins.





This plant also contains potassium, sodium, magnesium, calcium and iron. Triterpenoid glycosides called asiaticoside are extraordinary antileprosy and wound healing. Light saponin content is used to inhibit keloid tissue.

Gotu kola is used in traditional medicine to cool, cleanse the blood, improve blood circulation, diuretics, antipyretics, haemostatics, improve nerve memory, anti-bacterial, tonic, antispasma, anti-inflammatory, hypotensive, insecticidal, antiallergic and stimulant.

The leaves have a sweet taste while the vellarine substance gives a bitter taste. Most gotu cola is consumed for fresh vegetables, but is often also used as tea, fried in flour as chips, extracted to fill capsules or cream, ointments, acne medications and body lotions.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Apiales
Family: Apiaceae
Subfamily: Mackinlayoideae
Genus: Centella
Species: Centella asiatica

Popular Posts

Black potato (Coleus rotundifolius)

Black potato ( Coleus rotundifolius ) is a species of plant in Lamiaceae, herbaceous, fibrous roots and tubers, erect and slightly creeping stems, quadrangular, thick, and slightly odorous. Single leaves, thick, membranous, opposite and alternate. Leaves are oval, dark green and shiny on the upper side, bright green on the lower side. Up to 5 cm long, up to 4 cm wide, slightly hairy and pinnate leaf veins. Leaf stalks up to 4 cm long. Small, purple flowers. Star-shaped petals, lip-shaped crown, dark to light purple with a slightly curved tube shape. Flowering from February-August. Small tubers, brown and white flesh and tuber length 2-4 cm. Kingdom: Plantae Phylum: Tracheophyta Subphylum: Angiospermae Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Lamiales Family: Lamiaceae Subfamily: Nepetoideae Tribe: Ocimeae Subtribe: Plectranthinae Genus: Coleus Species: Coleus rotundifolius

Wild durian (Cullenia exarillata)

Wild durian ( Cullenia exarillata ) is a species of plant in the Malvaceae, a tall tree with smooth, greyish-white bark, peeling on older trees, a straight trunk, horizontal branches and often with a series of knob-like tubercles for flower and fruit attachment. C. exarillata has young branches and the underside of the leaves is covered with golden brown peltate or shield-like scales. The leaves are single, alternate, glabrous, glossy green on the upper side and covered with silvery or orange peltate scales on the underside. Hermaphroditic flowers are tubular and also covered with golden brown scales, 4-5 cm long and cream or reddish brown in color. Flowers have no petals, formed of tubular bracteoles and tubular calyxes, 5-lobed. Fruit is round, 10-13 cm in diameter, covered with thorns and clustered along the branches. Many seeds, reddish brown, 4-5 cm long and 2-3 cm wide. The seeds are enclosed by a fleshy, whitish aril. The fruit splits open when ripe and dries to release the s...

Thomas Sutikna lives with Homo floresiensis

BLOG - On October 28, 2004, a paper was published in Nature describing the dwarf hominin we know today as Homo floresiensis that has shocked the world. The report changed the geographical landscape of early humans that previously stated that the Pleistocene Asia was only represented by two species, Homo erectus and Homo sapiens . The report titled "A new small-bodied hominin from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia" written by Peter Brown and Mike J. Morwood from the University of New England with Thomas Sutikna, Raden Pandji Soejono, Jatmiko, E. Wahyu Saptomo and Rokus Awe Due from the National Archaeology Research Institute (ARKENAS), Indonesia, presents more diversity in the genus Homo. “Immediately, my fever vanished. I couldn’t sleep well that night. I couldn’t wait for sunrise. In the early morning we went to the site, and when we arrived in the cave, I didn’t say a thing because both my mind and heart couldn’t handle this incredible moment. I just went down...