Catharanthus Roseus - Cancer medicine

Vincarosealin is a beautiful flowering trees, usually grow very much in the sandy fields and planted as ornamentals. This tree has valuable biological properties, used to treat some cancer drugs, the dreaded disease of the industrial age.

- Plants "Vincarosealin" is called common periwinkle. Other English names occasionally used include Cape periwinkle, rose periwinkle, rosy periwinkle, and "old-maid". .Its scientific name is Vincarosealin or Catharanthus roseus (L.) G.Don, the oleander (Apocynaceae) . 


- Periwinkle is native to the African island of Madagascar, but it is cultivated in many countries for medicinal and as ornamentals.


- When to visit Uncle Ho statue in Vinh (Nghe An), I see people planting a garden periwinkle. It's beautiful red blooms,. 

- In folklore, periwinkle is a drug. In the past, I have seen neighbors, baby boiling water burns. Previous the house, "planting" this tree, he picked leaf periwinkle fresh, smashed, mixed with a little rice flour, put on the wound. A few days later the wound was dry. My uncle is diabetic, he often "drink" water periwinkle leaves.

- In folklore, there are many remedies used periwinkle. Colitis cure, treat hypertension.


- The scientists also have researched, analyzed substances in periwinkle and see that. The reason it has healing effects as folklore handed down is because some chemicals are more in the trunk, roots and leaves as acid pyrocatechic, ursolic acid and especially the alkaloid of indole.

- 1958, Noble and colleagues, was "extracted" an alkaloid from the leaves of periwinkle. Vincaleucoblastine (also called vinblastin). 4 years later, Svoboda and his colleagues also found a Vincaleucocristin alkaloids (vincristine called).

- The content of alkaloids in periwinkle very small (about 1 ten thousandth of dried coconut leaves for vincristine vinblastin also for less than 10 times longer). It is often use these two alkaloids as anti-cancer drugs as sulfate.

- The process of preparing this alkaloid two, a lot of work with high costs, so quite expensive drugs. Currently, we have sought biosynthetic or semisynthetic alkaloid to reduce the price of drugs. People have drugs leukemia (leukemia), the patient's trunk and periwinkle leaves (about 15 g dry leaves / day).


- On the market, medicines vinblastin (also known Velban) A table is standalone product, usually 5-10 mg lyophilized with 1 tube solvent. Vinblastin can inhibit the reproduction of cancer cells, little effect on red blood cells and platelets.