Gotu Kola Uses and Plant Monograph
I grew up around gotu kola without even knowing it. This plant loves the swampy, marshy parts of Florida, and if you’re not looking for it, it seems like just another low-profile ground cover. It wasn’t until years later when I had major surgery and was working with an herbalist for post-op care that I was properly introduced to gotu kola. Since then, they have become one of my frequent allies for scar care and connective tissue repair.
I’ve tried growing them here in New England with mixed success. I keep planting the seeds every year though because there is something so sweet about the little fan cotyledon when it pops up from the earth and because I feel such a kinship with the plants who like to live in watery places and keep their feet wet.
Gotu kola is not often found in Western herbal books because most of the information that we have about it comes from the Ayurvedic texts (the Charaka Samhita and Shushruta Samhita) and the Chinese Pharmacopeia — the Shen Nong Ben Cao Ling. In all of these, this plant is known as a longevity tonic with a wide variety of uses within the body, and as a primary remedy for leprosy, lupus, eczema, and psoriasis.1 In Ayurveda, gotu kola is a remedy for balancing Pitta (fire and water); and in Traditional Chinese Medicine it is indicated to clear heat and dry dampness.2 All of these applications still ring true, and research continues to unravel the complex chemistry by which this humble herb has become a beloved tonic by so many.
Gotu Kola Uses & Plant Profile Summary
- Botanical Name: Centella asiatica, in some older texts you might find it as Hydrocotyle asiatica
- Other Common Names: Gotu kola, Indian pennywort, Mandukaparni or Saraswati (Sanskrit), Brahmi (Brahmi is also frequently used to refer to Bacopa (Bacopa monnieri), which is similar to gotu kola in terms of actions, but has different energetics. While gotu kola is cooling and astringent/drying and mildly bitter, Bacopa is cooling and moistening and very bitter.), Ji Xue Cao (TCM pin yin), nuoc rau ma (Vietnamese)
- Family: Apiaceae
- Parts Used: aerial parts, leaf
- Energetics: cooling, astringent, slightly drying
- Taste: mildly bitter, mineraly, salty, sweet
- Plant Properties: adaptogenic, Analgesic (mild, topically), Anti-inflammatory, Anti-fibrotic, Anxiolytic (mild), Bitter (mild), Cerebral Tonic, Circulatory Stimulant (peripheral), Connective Tissue Tonic, Laxative (mild), Nervine, Neuroprotective, Nootropic, Venotonic, Vulnerary
- Plant Uses: a wide range of applications for connective tissue and wound healing, cognitive tonic, circulatory stimulant, digestive support
- Plant Preparations: tincture, infusion, powder, food, capsule, compress/poultice, infused oil
Connective Tissue Tonic
The thread that weaves through all of gotu kola’s uses in body tissues is its role as a collagen modulator. Collagen is a protein produced by specialized cells called fibroblasts that are found in connective tissue throughout the body. While there are 28 types of collagen, collagen 1 comprises 90% of the protein found in our vasculature, skin, tendons, and ligaments.3
Collagen 1 is also the primary form of collagen found in scar tissue.4 Several of the constituents in gotu kola (asiatic acid, madecassic acid, and asiaticoside) stimulate collagen 1 synthesis, and so have effects throughout the body.5 At the same time, these compounds also exhibit anti-inflammatory activity which reduces the likelihood of hypertrophy and excessive scarring.6 Additionally, they stimulate angiogenesis —the formation of new blood vessels — which is critical for wound healing and adequate delivery of oxygen and nutrients to new cells.7
This herb is one of my go-to’s for connective tissue conditions. I like combining it with Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum biflorum) for any connective tissue disorder such as Ehlers-Danlos or scleroderma, as well as sprains and strains of all kinds. I love putting this plant in post-operative tea and tincture blends, especially for larger surgeries that involve multiple layers of tissue repair. And then I put it in oil or salve to use topically on scars. Massaging the oil or salve into the scarring not only helps to reduce scar tissue manually, but also gets the medicine exactly where it needs to go. This is also a great preventative measure for keloid scar formation.8
Vulnerary for Skin
As a first aid plant, a poultice or compress of the leaves can be applied to scalds and burns and can accelerate the healing time of wounds.9 Gotu kola is becoming a common plant extract in face and body products, and there is clinical evidence to back this up. A 2015 study used a combination of gotu kola, turmeric, and black walnut in various topical preparations on participants with eczema. This formulation significantly reduced itching, edema, lichenification, scaling, and erythema (reddening of skin due to injury or irritation) across groups.10 Another study in 2020 applied gotu kola (standardized extracts of madecasside + asiaticoside) infused cream to patients with atrophic acne scars; after 3 months the sides of the faces that had the cream applied showed markedly less erythema and crusting.11 With this in mind, there are even wound dressings being developed that contain extracts from gotu kola that could one day be used in hospitals and other allopathic medical settings.12
Cognitive Tonic
Gotu kola is widely known as a brain tonic. If you consider the Doctrine of Signatures, the growth habit of the plant itself resembles a series of neurons, connected with long axons in a web. It has a calming and nourishing effect on the brain, especially when there is a lot of mental chatter. Gotu kola, and the related bacopa, are both great choices for helping manage distracted thinking that people can experience with ADHD. Bacopa is even more specifically indicated for increasing ability to focus, but the two make a great combination.
If you need a blend for focus that is energizing, ginkgo and rosemary are great partners with gotu kola. If you need a blend for focus that is calming, add in some peppermint or tulsi. It’s also an herb that I have been using frequently for the brain fog that seems to linger after COVID-19 infections.
Nervous System Relief
Given that gotu kola has such powerful actions on the neural convergence that is the brain, it is no surprise this plant also acts on the rest of our nervous system. As an adaptogenic herb, I find it particularly useful for when adrenal fatigue is showing up as scattered thinking and inability to focus. You can combine gotu kola with other adaptogens, nervines, or just enjoy it as a simple.
While there is a long tradition of using gotu kola as a remedy for anxiety and mood in Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese Medicine, there have only been two clinical trials examining the effects of gotu kola on patients’ anxiety. The results of these were significantly reduced self-perception of anxiety and acoustic startle response, all pointing to the ways in which gotu kola acts to help regulate the nervous system (used as a measure of nervous system activation).13,14,15
Circulatory Stimulant
Gotu Kola is an excellent peripheral circulatory stimulant, helping to move blood to the extremities. This also includes encouraging blood flow to the brain, which helps improve brain function. This same ability to move blood makes this a good tonic for chronic venous insufficiency (CVI), which can manifest as hemorrhoids and varicose veins.16 Likewise, gotu kola is supportive for diabetic microangiopathy (reduction of blood flow to extremities due to capillary wall thickening) and diabetic ulcers that are not healing because of that lack of sufficient blood flow.17 And finally, gotu kola is also wonderful for arthritis (rheumatoid and osteo), both because of its ability to bring more circulation to the joints and because of the anti-inflammatory action of asiaticoside (see constituents section for more detail).
Venous Tonic
Gotu kola can also be a great supporting player in a formula for lowering blood pressure.
As an adaptogen, it helps to regulate activity of the adrenal glands, which are also responsible for producing hormones such as aldosterone, which regulates electrolyte and water balance in the body, and therefore blood pressure. The nervine action of gotu kola also translates to vascular tone which helps to physically modulate blood pressure. A clinical trial published in 2021 administered gotu kola tea to participants, the majority of whom showed lowered systolic and diastolic blood pressures after consumption.18
There is also some interesting clinical research being done about the effects of gotu kola extracts on plaque accumulation that is a symptom of atherosclerosis. A lot of pharmaceuticals, such as statin drugs, are aimed at helping to stabilize arterial plaques and reduce risk of strokes or heart attacks that can be caused by plaque dislodgement or rupture. Part of the mechanisms of plaque stabilization is modulating collagen growth and breakdown, which is something that gotu kola does really well! There has only been one clinical trial published to date, but the results showed that gotu kola offered significant support of plaque stabilization.19 Given that the mechanism of stabilization and reduction is similar for amyloid plaques in the brain that are associated with Alzheimers, gotu kola might be a useful therapeutic for this kind of degenerative brain condition as well.
GI Support
Gotu kola is a great herb for sluggish digestion that also comes with brain fog. The two are often linked because if your digestion is not working efficiently and assimilating nutrients as expected, the downstream effect is compromised cognitive function as the brain tissue is not getting enough nourishment. Gotu kola is not so much of a primary bitter that will rapidly act on the liver and gallbladder but rather a gentle bitter that encourages gastric secretions as digestion comes back into balance, while simultaneously supporting the brain as discussed above. Due to its vulnerary properties, it’s a great choice for stomach ulcers or otherwise irritated stomach lining. When eating the leaves as a green vegetable, the fiber absorbs and brings moisture to stools and gives gotu kola a mild laxative action when consumed in large amounts. A few fresh gotu kola, plantain, and violet leaves thrown into a pesto blend of your other favorite culinary herbs (basil, dill, cilantro etc) is a soothing, moisturizing, and delicious treat for your lower GI!
Urinary Tract Soother
There is significant traditional use of fresh gotu kola leaves being boiled and eaten for urinary tract infections, and I do use this plant in blends to support inflammatory urinary tract conditions, such as interstitial cystitis and chronic UTIs.20
Constituents
Saponins:
- Triterpenes: asiatic acid and madecassic acid – stimulate collagen production and decrease fibrosis in wounds. 21
- Triterpene ester glycosides: asiaticoside and madecassoside – asiaticoside is responsible for antiinflammatory effects by inhibiting TNF-alpha (tumor necrosis factor alpha), IL-6(interleukin-6), and prostaglandins (a lipid compound that is central to inflammatory processes, which can lead to pain)22; madecassoside is a central nervous system depressant, by increasing GABA in the brain23;
Botanically Speaking
Gotu kola is a plant of the tropics. It loves heat and moisture and is often found growing in swamps or slow-moving water. It’s native to Southeast Asia (India, Japan, China, Indonesia), and has become naturalized in parts of the Southeast United States. It loves the sun but also does fine in the shade. In its native climate, gotu kola is an evergreen perennial that spreads via a low, creeping, unbranched rhizome. The reniform (kidney shaped) leaves with crenate margins are on long reddish petioles with sheathed bases, and grow in clusters from nodes of the rhizome. There are tiny pale pink to white flowers that bloom in small umbels. As a perennial, the leaves are almost succulent-like. As an annual in temperate regions, gotu kola loves living in a greenhouse. During the growing season it will spread and thrive but not be quite as thick and juicy.
Gotu kola can be a bit temperamental to start from seed. Sometimes they have been the first seeds in my garden to pop up in the spring and sometimes my flats do not germinate at all. Once growing though, you can harvest the leaves successively (just like with mints) and they will grow back quickly and continue to provide you with medicine until the weather turns too cold.
Plant Preparations and Dosage Suggestions
- Infusion: 3–30 g dried or fresh herb per day24
- Tincture: 1:2, 95% 1–4 ml 3x a day25
- Capsules: 500-1,000 (0.5-1 g), 3x a day
Standardized extracts will generally provide 60–180mg triterpenes daily (40% asiaticoside, 30% asiatic acid, 30% madecassic acid, 1% madiasiatic acid).26 These capsules can be really helpful for recovering from traumatic brain injury or other intense nervous system recovery where you really want to make sure you are getting the ideal balance of the active constituents in the plant. - Compress/Poultice: fresh leaves are best, but dried could be used in a pinch
- Food: eat the leaves in salads or blend into smoothies and pesto! It tastes a bit like celery.
Special Considerations
Gotu kola is has no clinically relevant interactions expected. It is generally considered safe for pregnancy + lactation (there are no clinical trials, but this herb has been used for centuries in Ayurvedic practices with pregnant people). The active constituents in gotu kola are saponins, so potentially a very high dose could lead to some stomach irritation in sensitive individuals.27
Footnotes
The Herbal Remedy Vault has all of our printable recipe cards...
