Gotu Kola

Have you ever eaten a fresh Gotu kola leaf?  It’s quite good and slightly bitter.  According to renowned Texas Herbalist, Odenna Brennan, it promotes longer life.  She claimed to eat three leaves a day and last I heard she was well into her 90s.  Gotu kola, Centella asiatica, is native to India, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, South Africa and the tropics. It can be grown as a ground cover or is lovely as a hanging container plant.  It likes shade and a warm climate and here in Texas it needs to be heavily mulched during our cold season. 

 The leaves of Gotu kola, also known as Brahmi in Aryuvedic Medicine, are used to improve memory by increasing blood circulation to the brain.   It is useful in promoting mental calm, and concentration. One of my most popular products, Mental Clarity, is a fresh tincture made from the lovely leaves. The leaves may also be made into a tea and eaten in salads. Rex and his wife, my friends from Sri Lanka, enjoy this incredible herb by making a pesto.  Rex gave me my original plants and now they now inhabit several locations in my garden.

Gotu kola, aka Indian pennywort, is a wonderful tonic for convalescence, for nervous exhaustion, stress and neurotic disturbances.  It is high in B vitamins, Vitamin K, magnesium, calcium and sodium.  The herb has a calming effect on the body and is used to support the central nervous system.  These qualities make Gotu kola a helpful herb for children with A.D.D. because of its stimulating effect on the brain which helps to increase one’s ability to focus while having a soothing effect on an overactive nervous system.

 The round leaves are also used topically in healing burns, connective tissue, lymph tissue, blood vessels and mucous membranes. The herb contains several glycosides that exhibit wound healing and anti-inflammatory activities necessary for healthy skin. My fresh Gotu kola leaves are also a main ingredient in my popular Wound Salve.

 Gotu kola is regarded as one of the most spiritual and rejuvenating herbs in Ayurveda and is used to improve meditation.  It is said to develop the crown charka, the energy center at the top of the head, and to balance the right and left hemispheres of the brain, which the leaf is said to resemble.

 Gotu kola:  A plant to be honored, revered and used.  Grow it in your garden or in a hanging basket and munch a leaf or two everyday.  Enjoy the many benefits of this amazing herb.