Vinca

Biological source: Vinca consists of the dried entire

plant of catharanthus roseus L. belonging to the
family Apocynaceae.
Geographical source: The plant is native of
Madagascar and is found in Nepal, India, Australia,
South Africa and South America. The plant is
cultivated as garden plants in Nepal and India.
Cultivation and Collection: The plant prefers sandy,
loamy and clay soil. They can grow in all kinds of soil
– acidic, neutral and alkaline soils. It is cultivated
either by directly sowing seeds or sowing seeds in
nursery. Nursery sowing method is found to be
more economical and the fresh seeds are sown in
nursery in the month of February or March. The
seedlings after two month are transplanted to the
cultivation field. Proper fertilization and weeding is
done timely and leaves are stripped after nine
months. In order to collect the whole plant, the
stems are first cut about 10 cm above the ground
and the leaves, seeds, stems are separated and
dried. The roots are collected by plugging which are
later washed and dried under
shade and packed.

Macroscopical characters: Vinca is an erect and

pubescent herb. The leaves are green, roots are
pale grey, flowers are violet pink-white or carmine –
red in colour. Leaves are simple, petolate, ovate or
oblong, entire, acute apex and glossy appearance.
Roots are tap and branched. Flowers are bracteates,
pedicellate, complete, hermaphrodite, cymose
inflorescence. Fruits are follicle with several black
seeds. The odour is characteristic and the taste is
bitter.

Microscopical characters: Vinca has dorsiventral

leaf structure. Epidermis is a single layered of
rectangular cells covered with thick cuticle. It
consists of unicellular coverning trichome and
cruciferous typed stomata. In the mesophyll region,
single layer of elongated and closely packed
palisade parenchyma cells are present just below
the upper epidermis. In the midrib region, two to
three layers of collenchyma is present, both below
the upper epidermis and lower epidermis. Vascular
bundle consisting of xylem and phloem is present in
the middle of midrib region and rest of the
intercellular space is covered by spongy
parenchyma cells. Calcium oxalate crystals are
absent.
Chemical constituents: About 90 alkaloids have
been isolated from Vinca. Out of them vincristine
and vinblastine are very important. The other
alkaloids present in Vinca are ajmalicine,
lochnerine, serpentine and tetrahydroalstonine. It
also contains monoterpenes, sesquiterpene, indole
and indoline glycoside.
Uses: Vinca is used to extract vincristine, vinblastine
and ajmalicine. Vincristine sulphate is an
antineoplastic agent which may act by arresting
metaphase at mitosis. It is given intravenously in
the treatment of acute leukemia of children. It has
other applications for lymphomas, small cell cancer,
cervical and breast cancer. Vincristine has superior
antitumour activity compared with vinblastine but
is neurotoxic.
Vinblastine sulphate is an antineoplastic agent
which may act by arresting metaphase at mitosis or
by interfering with amino acid metabolism. It is
mainly used in the treatment of hodgkin’s diseases
and other lymphomas and choricarcinoma.