Tigers are said to roll in it to heal their wounds, so what’s not to like? The Centellla asiatica plant, also known as Gotu Kola or Tiger Grass, is a perennial favourite in traditional Eastern medicine. It packs a powerful soothing, healing and hydrating skincare punch, and none so more than one of its main molecules, madecassoside.
Madecassoside is a highly purified glycosylated triterpen of the Centella asiatica plant. It activates collagen expression, normalises hyperproliferation of keratinocytes, has anti-inflammatory properties and a visible effect on excessive desquamation.
If you’re not a chemistry and skincare nerd like us and have at this point zoned out, this is the take-away: madecassoside is great for sensitive and very dry skin (including atopic and psoriasis-prone skin), thanks to its anti-itching, anti-redness, anti-flaking and smoothing effect. It also hydrates skin, which is an extra bonus. It has skin-rejuvenating properties, which makes madecassoside great for helping scars heal. After two years of trial and error, we decided to stick 1.5% of madecassoside into the Calming Serum, to really make it work.
The madecassoside we use is sustainably (UEBT/Nagoya Protocol) wild-harvested on Madagascar and purified in France.
Fun fact: if you’ve used so-called cica creams, you’re already familiar with Centella asiatica – it puts the “ca” in the “cica”.
