2024, Vol. 12, Issue 3, Part B

Ethnopharmacological relevance: Catharanthus roseus (also called Sadabahar in India), is utilized as a common traditional medicine in India, England, Thailand, Japan and Australia. It was traditionally used to treat wasp string, gonorrhoea, hypertension and menstrual cycle. Various compounds obtained from this plant are utilized for medicinal purposes. It is even commercially formulated for its anticancer properties.

Aims: This review aims to provide a systematic summary of Catharanthus roseus and to reveal the correlation between the traditional uses and pharmacological activities so as to offer inspiration for future research.

Materials and Methods: All corresponding information about Catharanthus roseus was collected using Google Scholar and from various scientific databases including Springer, Science Direct, Wiley, and PubMed. Local dissertations and books were searched as well.

Results: According to classical ayurvedic text, Catharanthus roseus dominantly displays antidiabetic effect in diabetes mellitus person and its hypertension properties which were verified in modern medicine for their use. In modern research, more than 200 compounds were identified from Catharanthus roseus. Leaves contain large number of alkaloids along with flavonoids, sterols, saponins, amino acid, polyphenols and anthocyanins. Alkaloids such as vindoline, vincristine, vinblastine, and catharanthine, are considered as the characteristic and active constituents of this plant. They exhibited anticancer, antidiabetic, antivirus, antibacterial effects, etc. Vinblastine and vincristine acts on the cancer cells by disrupting the mitotic spindle fibres thereby inhibiting cell division. Currently, there is no lethal effect of Catharanthus roseus at lower dosage on human i.e., less than 5000 mg/kg.

Conclusions: Due to pantropical distribution of C. roseus, it has wide range of traditional uses in different countries. Among these uses antitumor, anticancer and antidiabetic potentialswere further supported by scientific research and clinical trials to develop commercial medicine. For future research, still other traditional uses are yet to be authenticated so more in vivo experiments and clinical studies are encouraged to further clarify the relation between these traditional uses and their modern applications.