plant guide
Centella asiatica
Across Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, gotu kola leaves are eaten as an everyday green — in salads, sambols and fresh green drinks. Dried and finely milled, the leaf becomes a soft green powder with a distinctly bitter flavour.
Meet the plant
Gotu kola is a low, creeping perennial of the carrot family (Apiaceae). It spreads by runners, forming soft green mats in wet, shady places. In Asia it grows wild as a common weed and is also cultivated as a vegetable.
Its best-known English name comes from Sinhala, the language of Sri Lanka, where kola means "leaf". Despite the name, it has nothing to do with the kola nut used in cola drinks. It is also called Asiatic or Indian pennywort.
The leaves are round to kidney-shaped, usually 2–5 cm across, with softly scalloped edges, and sit on long, slender stalks. Tiny whitish or reddish flowers appear close to the ground, singly or in small clusters. Linnaeus first named the plant Hydrocotyle asiatica in 1753, grouping it with the true pennyworts; today it has its own genus, Centella.
Eaten raw as a salad leaf, as in Malaysia and Indonesia, or cooked briefly like other greens.
In Sri Lanka the finely shredded leaves are mixed with grated coconut, shallot and lime, or tossed briefly in a hot pan.
In Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos the leaves are blended into a juice, diluted with water and lightly sweetened.
Sri Lankan kola kenda is a rice porridge made with coconut milk and the juice of green leaves such as gotu kola.
In northern Thailand the leaves go into laap and fried noodles; in Myanmar they are also deep-fried or cooked in soups.
Dried, finely milled leaves — the whole leaf rather than a concentrated extract.
The story
Gotu kola appears in some of the oldest herbal traditions of Asia — and, alongside them, in everyday home cooking.
Ayurvedic tradition describes the plant under the Sanskrit name mandukaparni, usually translated as "frog-leaved". In India it is also known as Indian pennywort.
Gotu kola is recorded in the Shennong Bencao Jing, the classic Chinese materia medica, under the name 积雪草 (jī xuě cǎo).
A French doctor on the island, Boileau, reported the use of the plant — known locally as Bavilacqua — in the treatment of leprosy.
The plant entered the French Codex (pharmacopoeia) in 1884, and the first dry extract followed in 1941. Today the dried herb has its own monograph in the European Pharmacopoeia.
Gotu kola is still eaten fresh across Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. In the late 20th century, Madagascar became a leading source of the dried plant for commercial preparations.
Gotu kola grows wild through the tropics and subtropics, but it is in South and Southeast Asia that it is best known as food. In Sri Lanka it is one of the most commonly eaten green leafy vegetables — shredded into sambols, cooked as mallum, stirred into kola kenda or pressed for juice. Elsewhere it is pegaga in Malaysia, pegagan in Indonesia and rau má in Vietnam, where the leaves are also blended into a lightly sweetened green drink.
Flavour & food traditions
Gotu kola powder has a distinctly bitter, grassy and green flavour. Its character contrasts with sweet fruit and citrus in drinks and other foods.
Nutritional value
Fresh gotu kola leaves are almost 88% water. Drying removes most of it, so 100 g of powder contains several times more nutrients than 100 g of fresh leaves. The powder is taken by the teaspoon, so the table shows amounts per 100 g and per 2 g — the upper suggested daily amount, about one level teaspoon.
Serving size: 2 g (about one level teaspoon). The NRV column uses this serving, not 100 g.
| Nutrient | Per 100 g powder | Per 2 g (about one level teaspoon) | % NRV at upper suggested serving |
|---|---|---|---|
| ProteinMacronutrients | ~18 g | 0.4 g | <1% |
| FibreMacronutrients | ~44 g | 0.9 g | — |
| CalciumMinerals | ~1,280 mg | ~26 mg | 3% |
| IronMinerals | ~42 mg | ~0.8 mg | 6% |
| PotassiumMinerals | ~3,500 mg | ~70 mg | 4% |
| PhosphorusMinerals | ~240 mg | ~5 mg | 1% |
NRV — EU nutrient reference value for adults (Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011); for protein, the reference intake of 50 g.
Powder values are estimated from published analyses of fresh leaves (87.7% water; Chandrika & Kumara 2015, as summarised by Shukurova et al. 2021), recalculated for a dry powder with about 8% moisture and rounded. The water-adjustment factor is approximately 7.48.
Iron from plants is absorbed less readily than iron from meat. Vitamin C helps — one more reason to take gotu kola with lime or fruit. Fresh gotu kola itself contains little vitamin C, and drying reduces it further, so the powder should not be counted as a source.
The illustrative portion in this table provides small amounts of minerals such as iron, calcium and potassium. These figures describe nutritional contribution, not a recommended daily dose.
Nutritional value
Alongside minerals and fibre, gotu kola contains plant compounds that are characteristic of the species — pharmacopoeias use them to identify the dried plant and check its quality. Others, such as flavonoids and carotenoids, are shared with many green foods.
Asiaticoside and madecassoside — the plant's signature compounds. Saponins make up as much as 8% of the dried herb.
Asiatic acid and madecassic acid, the core structures of those saponins. Together this group is known as centelloids.
Kaempferol, quercetin and their glycosides, plus catechins — plant pigments.
Also found in: tea, apples and onions
A family of phenolic compounds that gotu kola is rich in.
Also found in: coffee and artichokes
Beta-carotene, which the body converts into vitamin A, and lutein — yellow pigments hidden beneath the green of leafy vegetables.
Around 0.1% of aromatic volatile compounds, part of the fresh, green scent of the leaves.
What gotu kola offers
In Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia gotu kola leaves are part of everyday meals, salads and green drinks. Dried leaf powder offers another form of this traditional ingredient.
Evidence & its limits
We prioritise recent, credible sources and state clearly whether the evidence comes from human, animal, laboratory or review studies. Both trials below reported positive results.
Nutrients · 2026
Human evidenceIn a 12-week trial with 112 middle-aged women, a standardised extract reduced wrinkle depth more than placebo, with small changes in hydration and elasticity. This was an extract supplied by its manufacturer, not ordinary leaf powder.
Open resource ↗Journal of Ethnopharmacology · 2008
Human evidenceIn a small two-month trial with 28 older adults, the highest extract dose improved working memory and participants reported some changes in mood. The result does not establish an effect from leaf powder.
Open resource ↗Educational product information. Not medical advice.
