Developmental study of chemical composition of Centella asiatica (L) Urban as a medicinal plant

Centella asiatica from Apiaceae family has 40 species in all over the world. It has Creeping herb, rooting at the nodes. Stems shallowly grooved, sometimes purplish. Leaves solitary or in groups of 2-5, kidney-shaped to almost circular, distinctly and broadly cordate at the base, up to 7 cm wide, hairless or with hairs on the petiole; margin crenate. Flowers in 2-8-flowered umbels, greenish-white to dark crimson. Fruit c. 3.5 × 3 mm, laterally flattened, round or ellipsoid, ribbed, brown when ripe.This species has medicinal properties for example, wound healing, Antioxidant, memory enhancement, Anti diabetic and so on. C. asiatica is distributed in Guilan province and plant materials are collected from three different stages of growth and development including beginning of growth, flowering and fruiting phase, and end of growth phase. The results are shown that essential oil yield was 0/16% (V/M) and 54 volatile compounds comprising 92.78% of total oil constituents were identified from C. asiatica. Sesquiterpenoids were the major class of volatile chemical (45/33%), with Germaerene-D as the predominant compound. (45.43%).