Growth and centelloside production in hydroponically established medicinal plant-Centella asiatica (L.)

Conditions to cultivate medicinally important herb Centella asiatica in hydroponic system are reported here for the first time. Growth kinetics of hydroponically grown plants was monitored over a period of 70 days. The maximum growth and dry matter accumulation (156.3% increment over the initial inoculum weight) in the cultured plants occurred around 42nd day. High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) analysis of the bioactive centellosides in the crude triterpenoids extract of the harvested leaves showed the presence of 11 mg, 1.7 mg, 36.6 mg and 6.3 mg of madecassoside, asiaticoside, madecassic acid and asiatic acid on per gram dry weight basis, respectively. The results of this study suggest that the cultivation of C. asiatica in hydroponic systems can be an effective platform for the production of clean and good quality C. asiatica herb for the pharmaceutical companies.

• This paper describes for the first time a method to cultivate Centella asiatica herb in hydroponic system.
• In this study a 40-45 days long cultivation cycle yielded highest biomass accumulation and centellosides content in the hydroponically grown plants.
• The harvested leaves gave a consistent yield of 11.0, 1.7, 36.6 and 6.3 mg of madecassocide, asiaticoside, madecassic acid and asiatic acid on per gram dry weight basis, respectively.
• The procedure describes here is relevant for producing quality C. asiatica herb for pharmaceutical companies by overcoming the problems of heavy metal toxicity and microbial loads associated with field grown material.