Centella asiatica: repair, not radiance

Centella asiatica — cica, tiger grass — anchors an entire shelf of Korean and Western skincare. Its published dermatology literature is about repair, not glow.

What the review supports

A peer-reviewed survey of the clinical literature concludes centella is effective in improving healing of small and hypertrophic wounds, burns, and in managing psoriasis and scleroderma. The mechanism runs through its pentacyclic triterpenes — asiaticoside and madecassoside — which stimulate fibroblasts and collagen synthesis, strengthening newly formed skin and damping the inflammatory phase of scarring. It is also why the ingredient turns up in post-procedure and post-laser skincare.

Bylka W, Znajdek-Awiżeń P, Studzińska-Sroka E, Brzezińska M. Centella asiatica in cosmetology. Postępy Dermatologii i Alergologii, 2013. PubMed 24278045

Where marketing runs ahead

“Soothing” claims on intact, healthy skin extrapolate from that repair evidence — plausible, but a softer claim than the wound-healing data behind it. And a product saying “cica” is not always a centella product at all: in some French pharmacy lines the word derives from cicatrisation and the formula contains no centella.

In the record

The centella products that publications formally named — the awarded products that name cica — skew heavily Korean, where the ingredient’s modern use was popularized.