Description

Periwinkle commonly known as bright eyes, Cape periwinkle, graveyard plant, Madagascar periwinkle, old maid, pink periwinkle, rose periwinkle, is a species of flowering plant in the family Apocynaceae. It is native and endemic to Madagaskar, but grown elsewhere as an ornamental and medicinal plant. It is a source of the drugsvincristine and vinblastine, used to treat cancer. It was formerly included in the genus Vinca as Vinca rosea.  

Characteristics:

Periwinkle is a happy-go-lucky small subshrub. It grows in adverse conditions, rain, heat, dust. It can be quite often seen growing out of cervices of walls. It is an evergreen subshrub or herbaceous plant growing 1 m tall. The leaves are oval to oblong, 2.5–9 cm long and 1–3.5 cm broad, glossy green, hairless, with a pale midrib and a short leaf-stalk 1–1.8 cm long; they are arranged in opposite pairs. The flowers are white to dark pink with a darker red centre, with a basal tube 2.5–3 cm long and a flower 2–5 cm diameter with five petal-like lobes. The fruit is a pair of follicles 2–4 cm long and 3 mm broad. Lots of cultivars have been developed with various colors, from red to white.  

Medicinal Uses:

In Ayurveda the extracts of its roots and shoots, though poisonous, is used against several diseases. In traditional Chinese medicine, extracts from it have been used against numerous diseases, including diabetes, malaria, and Hodgkin's lymphoma. Many of the vinca alkaloids were first isolated from Catharanthus roseus. The substances vinblastine and vincristine extracted from the plant are used in the treatment of leukemia and Hodgkin's lymphoma.