Rosy Periwinkle

• The rosy periwinkle ( Catharanthus roseus ) is a small evergreen shrub which is native to Madagascar, although it is now common in many tropical and sub-tropical regions
• The plant requires a warm tropical climate, without frost, and where soils are well-drained but moisture retaining, and slightly acidic.
• The rosy periwinkle’s use in traditional medicine is long established, from the treatment of wasp stings in India, to diabetes in China and the Philippines.
• It is also a popular ornamental garden plant.
• the plant came to the attention of scientists only in the late 1960s when analysis revealed that it contained 70 known alkaloids, several of which have significant medicinal value.
• Two of these previously unknown alkaloids, vincristine and vinblastine, have been developed as powerful drugs in the treatment of various cancers.
• Vincristine is successfully used in chemotherapy in childhood leukaemia and has helped increase survival rates from around 10% in 1970 to over 90% today.
• Vinblastine has also proved highly effective in treating Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
• Currently scientists have been unable to synthesise these alkaloids and production of the drugs relies on commercial cultivation of the rosy periwinkle mainly in India, central Asia and Madagascar.
• Global sales of vincristine and vinblastine are worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually to Eli Lilly, the US pharmaceutical giant that developed them.
• few of the profits from the global trade of rosy periwinkle are channelled back to Madagascar and its indigenous rainforest people.
• exploitation of biological resources is described as biopiracy . It deprives LIDCs such as Madagascar of valuable international trade, potential exports and value added. In doing so, biopiracy hinders economic growth and progress in tackling poverty and inequality.