Kemunting Cina

Kemunting Cina
Scientific Name	Catharanthus Roseus
Order	Gentianales
Family	Apocynaceae
Synonyms	Vinca rosea, Ammocallis rosea, Lochnera rosea
Common Name	Madagascar periwinkle, Cape periwinkle, Rose periwinkle, rosy periwinkle, old maid Madagascar periwinkle, Cape periwinkle, Rose periwinkle, rosy periwinkle, old maid

{slider=Description}

The evergreen subshrub plant growing to 1m tall.  The leaves are oval to oblong, 2.5 – 9cm long and 1– 3.5cm broad, glossy green,
hairless, with a pale midrib and a short petiole 1–1.8cm long. The flowers are rosy pink with a darker red centre, with a basal tube 2.5–3cm long and a corolla 2–5cm diameter with five petal-like lobes. The fruit is a pair of follicles 2–4cm long and 3mm broad.
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{slider=Geographical Distribution}

Widely cultivated and is naturalised in subtropical and tropical areas of the world such as India, South Africa, China and Malaysia.

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{slider=Chemical Contents}

The extracts of entire dried plant contain many alkaloids of medicinal use. The principal alkaloid of Catharantus roseus is vinblastine, or vincaleukoblastine. There are over 70 other alkaloid that have been isolated from the C.roseus plant in addition to vinblastine and vincristine. The two classes of active compounds in C.roseus are alkaloids and tannins. The major alkaloid is vincamine and its closely related semi-synthethic derivative widely used as a medicinal agent, known as ethyl-apovincaminate or vinpocetine (BS Nayak et.al., 2006). Synthetic vincristine, used to treat leukemia, is only 20% as effective as the natural product derived from  Catharanthus roseus.  Scientist found an anthocyanidin which rosinidin pigment  found in the flowers of C.roseus.

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{slider=Traditional Uses}

In Indian traditional medicine the extracts of its roots and shoots is used against several disease. In traditional Chinese medicine the extracts of roots and shoots have been used against disease such as diabetes, malaria and Hodgkin’s lymphoma. C. roseus has a lot of substances of vinblastine and vincristine which used in treatment of leukemia and Hodgkin’s lymphoma. However it can be dangerous if consummed orally and is cited in Louisiana State Act 159. In Madagascar this periwinkle used as anti-diabetic. Researchers of American and Canadian during World War Two became aware that soldiers stationed in the Philippines were using it instead of insulin during shortages. In Hawai'i they prescribed an extract of the boiled plant to arrest bleeding. In Central America and parts of South America, they made a gargle to ease soar throats and chest ailments and laryngitis. In Cuba, Puerto Rico, Jamaica and other islands, an extract of the flower was commonly administered as an eyewash for the eyes of infants. In Africa, leaves are used for menorrhagia and reumatism. Surinamese boil ten leves and ten flowers together for diabetes. Bahamians take flower decoction for asthma and flatulence, and the entire plant for tuberculosis. In Mauritius, the leaves infusion s given for dyspepsia and indigestion. In Vietnamit, is taken for diabetes and malaria. Curacao and Bermuda natives take the plant for high blood pressure. Indochinese use the stalks and leaves for dysmenorrhea. (Duke,J.A.Handbook of Medicinal Herbs.1985 ; Magic and Medicine of Plants.1993).

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{slider=Pharmacology}

Antitumor:

C.roseus is of enormous pharmaceutical interest because it contains more than 120 terpenoid indole akaloids (TIAs) and many of the alkaloids exhibit strong pharmacological activities (Van der Heijden et. al., 2004). The alkaloid has growth inhibition effects in certain human tumors and experimentally for treatment of neoplasms, and is recomanded for generalized Hodgkin's disease and resistant choricarcinoma.

Antileukimia

Another pharmacologically important alkaloid is vincristine sulfate or vincristine used in treatment of leukemia in children. In cytotoxicity studies used Jurkat cells and normal peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) treated with leaf aqueous extracts of C.roseus  indicated the differential effects of inhibiting the proliferation of the Jurkat cell line and promoting the growth of PBMCs (Nor Hazwani A. et. al, 2010)

Antimicrobial & Wound Healing

The ethanol flower extract of C.roseus demonstrated sensitive to  Pseudomona aeruginosa and staphylococcus aureus which potential as antimicrobial and has potential in wound healing activity used  Sprague Dawley rats as wound model (BS Nayak et. al., 2006).

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{slider=Toxicity studies}

Study done by Soon Huat et.al. in 2013 reported in vitro antioxidant and antidiabetic activities of four major alkaloids isolated from dichloromethane extract of this plant’s leaves which is vindoline,vindolidine, vindolicine and vindolininie were not cytotoxic towards pancreatic β-TC6 cells at the highest dosage tested (25.0 μg/mL). The leaf juice of C.roseus produced dose dependent reduction in blood glucose of both normal and diabetic rabbits and comparable with that of the standard drug, glibenclamide (Srinivas N. et. al., 2003). The diabetic rabbits were orally administration at doses of 0.5, 0.75 and 1.0ml/kg bodyweight.

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{slider=Reference}

DukeJ.A. 1985. Handbook of Medicinal Herbs.

Duke J. A. 1993. Magic and Medicine of Plants.

Van der Heijden R., jacobs D I., Snoeijer W., Hallard D and Verpoorte R. 2004. The Catharantus alkaloids : Pharmacognosy and biotechnology. Current medicinal chemistry. 11(5):607-628.

BS Nayak and Lexley M. P. P. 2006 . Catharantus roseus flower extract has wound healing activity in Sprague Dawley rats. BMC Complimentery and alternative medicine. 6:41.

Soon H. T., Chung Y. L., Hazrina H., Aditya A., Mohammadjavad P., Won F. W., Shiau C.C., Mohd Rais M. and Khalijah A. 2013. Antidiabetic and antioxidant of alkaloids from Catharanthus roseus (L.)G. Don. Molecules. 18:9770-9784.

Som N. S., Praveen V., Shoba S., Radhey S., M.M.L. Kumria, S. Ranganathan and K.Sridharan. 2001. Effect of an antidiabetic extract of Catharantus roseus on enzymic activities in streptozocin induced diabetic rats. Journal of Ethopharmacology. 76:269-277.

Srinivas N., Murthy K. B., Srinivas D. L. and Ravindra B. S. B. 2003. The juice of fresh leaves of Catharanthus roseus Linn. Reduces blood glucose in normal and alloxan diabetic rabbits. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 3:4.

Nor Hazwani A., Rohanizah A. R. and Ishak M.Catharanthus roseus aqueous extract is cytotoxic to Jurkat Leukaemic T-cells but induces the proliferation of normal peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Tropical Life Sciences Research. 21(2):101-113.

Manuscript prepared by Zaleha Md Toha

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