CSIR-NEERI Biodiversity Portal

NEERI Biodiversity Portal

Easy access to campus Biodiversity...

Facilitates Learning & Sharing Knowledge of Biodiversity on a Click

NBP was inaugurated by Dr. M.S. Ladania, Director, NRCC Nagpur on 8 April 2015

Sadaphuli

Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don

Botanical name	: Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don .
Common Name	: Periwinkle /Sadabahar/Sadaphuli
Family	: Apocynaceae
Synonym	: Vinca rosea L.
About	: Cape periwinkle is an attractive, evergreen small shrub, bearing graceful pink or white salverform flowers. The plant is native to southeastern and eastern Madagascar. It gained world recognition after the European colonists exported it as an ornamental plant. Stems green, often suffused with purple or red. The glossy leaves of the plant are oval to oblong in shape, 1-9 cm long and 0.5-6 cm broad, arranged in opposite pairs, with a pale midrib and a short petiole. The flowers usually have five petal-like lobes in it, pale pink, with a purple "eye" in the center. Flowers drop off when they finish blooming. Seeds 1-2 mm, numerous, grooved on one side. The plant has been a boon in the treatment of many ailments, especially leukemia occurring in children. Grows throughout India and found as an escape in waste places and sandy tracts. Now-a-days it is extensively used in medical research.