Centella

Centella: what was it used for?

A remedy for the skin and, in India, for the mind. Dymock, Warden, and Hooper record that in the Sanskrit Nighantas it is called cold, moist, sweet, and alterative, “said to improve the memory and understanding,” and to cure leprosy, jaundice, gonorrhoea, and fever, and that the Pharmacopoeia of India made it official as an alterative, tonic, and local stimulant for syphilitic skin diseases, taken inwardly and applied. Grieve calls it a valuable diuretic and “a noted remedy for leprosy, rheumatism and ichthyosis.”

Centella: what does modern science say?

The European Medicines Agency’s herbal committee accepts the herb, applied to the skin only, as an infusion soaked into dressings or as a powder, as a traditional herbal medicine, “exclusively based upon long-standing use,” to aid the healing of minor wounds (monograph of 2022). Its assessment report judged the few clinical studies of wound healing so deficient in design and in describing their preparations that their outcomes were “not clinically relevant.” A 2022 review of four trials concluded that it might enhance wound healing but that more studies were needed before a meta-analysis could be done. On its old reputation for memory, a 2017 meta-analysis of randomised trials found no significant effect on any domain of cognitive function, though it may raise alertness and lessen anger.

Centella: what did the older authorities say?

Dymock, Warden, and Hooper, Pharmacographia Indica (1891)

Chakradatta directs the fresh juice to be given with milk and liquorice. Ainslie reports an infusion of the toasted leaves with fenugreek for children’s bowel complaints and fever, and the leaves laid on bruises on the Coromandel Coast. As a remedy for leprosy it was brought to notice by Boileau in 1859, but Dr A. Hunter, who tried it in the Madras Leper Hospital, concluded that “it had no claim to consideration as a specific in leprosy,” though it improved the symptoms and the general health.