Centella Lab — Centella Asiatica Plant Reference | centellalab.com
The INCI names to look for, what each one refers to, and an ordered procedure for checking an ingredient list.
A cica label lists ingredients under INCI names. The five entries to look for are Centella Asiatica Extract, Asiaticoside, Madecassoside, Asiatic Acid and Madecassic Acid.
Centella Asiatica Extract denotes material derived from the whole plant. Asiaticoside and Madecassoside are the individual triterpenes — the same compounds recorded among the approximately 124 isolated from the plant — listed separately when a formula uses them in isolated form.
Asiatic Acid and Madecassic Acid are the acid forms corresponding to the two named triterpene glycosides. Their presence on a label indicates the acid fraction rather than the glycoside.
On narrow screens, swipe or scroll the plate sideways.
To check a label, work through the ingredient list in order: first locate the exact INCI string, then note whether it is the whole-plant extract or an isolated constituent, then read the position in the list, since INCI entries appear in descending order of weight.
The usual failure is reading the brand word — cica, centella, gotu kola — instead of the INCI line. A second failure is equating the extract with a listed percentage of an isolated triterpene; they are different entries and different materials.
Spelling matters: INCI names are fixed strings, and a near-miss spelling is a different entry. Compare character by character against the five names above.
Further reading