Asiatic Acid

Asiatic acid is a pentacyclic triterpene isolated from a variety of plants, including C. asiatica, used in traditional medicines. In addition to anti-inflammatory actions, asiatic acid stimulates wound healing by increasing collagen production.¹ It has also been found to induce cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in breast cancer cells (IC₅₀ = 5.9 µM for MCF-7 cells) and block angiogenesis in cells and tumors from glioblastomas.^2,3 Asiatic acid also impacts amyloid-β precursor protein processing by down regulating BACE1 while increasing ADAM10 maturation in primary rat cortical neurons.⁴ In addition, it reduces neuronal damage and cognitive defects resulting from glutamate administration in vivo in mice while demonstrating protective effects against glutamate-induced apoptosis in isolated SH-SY5Y cells.⁵

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1. Maquart, F.X., Chastang, F., Simeon, A., et al. Triterpenes from Centella asiatica stimulate extracellular matrix accumulation in rat experimental wounds. Eur. J. Dermatol. 9(4), 289-296 (1999).

2. Hsu, Y.L., Kuo, P.L., Lin, L.T., et al. Asiatic acid, a triterpene, induces apoptosis and cell cycle arrest through activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways in human breast cancer cells. J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther. 313(1), 333-344 (2005).

3. Kavitha, C.V., Agarwal, C., Agarwal, R., et al. Asiatic acid inhibits pro-angiogenic effects of VEGF and human gliomas in endothelial cell culture models. PLoS One 6(8), (2011).

4. Patil, S.P., Maki, S., Khedkar, S.A., et al. Withanolide A and asiatic acid modulate multiple targets associated with amyloid-β precursor protein processing and amyloid-β protein clearance. J. Nat. Prod. 73(7), 1196-1202 (2010).

5. Xu, M.F., Xiong, Y.Y., Liu, J.K., et al. Asiatic acid, a pentacyclic triterpene in Centella asiatica, attenuates glutamate-induced cognitive deficits in mice and apoptosis in SH-SY5Y cells. Acta Pharmacol. Sin. 33, 578-587 (2012).