What are the effects and functions of Centella asiatica?
Centella asiatica is a herbaceous plant of the Apiaceae family. It has been used in Asia for several centuries and is believed to promote cognition and has been used to treat a variety of skin diseases, from wounds that are difficult to heal to leprosy. Some people also use Centella asiatica to treat high blood pressure, rheumatism, fever and neurological disorders. Let us take a look below at the effects and functions of Centella asiatica!
The medicinal effects of Centella asiatica
[Nature and flavor] Sweet, slightly pungent and bitter in flavor; neutral and cool in nature.
[Meridian entry] Heart, lung, spleen, kidney and large intestine meridians.
[Effects] Clears heat and drains dampness, reduces swelling and resolves toxicity; treats abdominal pain from summerheat-type sha, summer diarrhea, dysentery, damp-heat jaundice, urinary gravel strangury, blood strangury, red eyes, swollen throat, rubella, scabies and ringworm, boils and carbuncles with swelling and toxicity, and traumatic injuries.
The pharmacological effects of Centella asiatica
1. Cholagogic effect: Centella asiatica can promote bile secretion by liver cells, increase bile in the hepatobiliary duct, raise internal pressure, relax the sphincter of the biliary tract, and thereby discharge bile.
2. Diuretic effect: Intragastric administration of a decoction of Centella asiatica to rats has a significant diuretic effect, and with continuous use the diuretic effect gradually decreases. Tests in anesthetized rabbits also showed an obvious diuretic effect.
3. Dissolving stones: Centella asiatica can make urine acidic, thereby dissolving stones that exist under alkaline conditions.
4. Antibacterial test: Centella asiatica is extremely sensitive to Staphylococcus aureus, moderately sensitive to Shigella sonnei, and not sensitive to Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa or Salmonella typhi.
5. Central effect: The glycosides contained in Centella asiatica have sedative and tranquilizing effects on mice and rats; this effect is mainly an influence on the cholinergic system in the central nervous system. The alcohol extract has no analgesic effect.
Medicinal selected formulas of Centella asiatica
1. Acute vomiting and diarrhea: 56.3 g fresh red-stem Centella asiatica, 56.3 g fresh Clinopodium chinense; wash both herbs, crush and squeeze out half a bowl of juice and take it.
2. Heatstroke with red dysentery and blood in the stool: 37.5 g Centella asiatica, 37.5 g Phyllanthus urinaria, 30.0 g Dicliptera chinensis, 30.0 g Plantago asiatica, 7.5 g Sophora flavescens root, 37.5 g brown sugar; decoct 8 bowls of water down to 3 bowls, remove the residue, add the brown sugar and stew for 10 minutes, then take it as tea.
3. Cassava poisoning: 150.0 g fresh Centella asiatica, 30.0 g brown sugar; decoct in water, add the brown sugar and stir until dissolved, then take it.
4. Throat inflammation: 18.8 g fresh Centella asiatica, 18.8 g fresh Centipeda minima, 18.8 g fresh Oxalis corniculata; wash the three herbs, crush and squeeze out the juice, mix with table salt, hold it in the mouth, then spit out the saliva; do this several times a day.
5. Menstrual abdominal pain in women: 75.0 g fresh Centella asiatica (washed with cool boiled water), an appropriate amount of honey; crush and squeeze out 8 fen of a bowl of juice, mix with honey and take it, taking it 2 times in succession.
6. Acute throat inflammation: 75.0 g fresh red-stem Centella asiatica, 37.5 g chive roots, an appropriate amount of winter honey; wash the two herbs, crush them together to obtain half a bowl of juice, add honey, mix and take it.
7. Cold cough and heat cough: 112.5 g fresh Centella asiatica, 75.0 g fresh Hedyotis diffusa, a little honey; wash the two herbs with cool boiled water, drain off the water, crush and squeeze out the raw juice, mix with honey and take it, taking it for 2 to 3 days in succession.
8. Cholecystitis: 30.0 g Centella asiatica, 30.0 g Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides, 18.8 g Artemisia capillaris, 30.0 g Polygonum cuspidatum, 18.8 g Pteris multifida; decoct in water and take it in 2 to 3 divided doses, taking it for 5 to 10 days in succession.