Madagaskar periwinkle

• Scientific name: Catharanthus roseus

a. Environment:

• Tropical, subtropical and sub temperate.
• 100 -120cm rainfall
• light sandy loam soils, rich in humus
• Water logged and highly alkaline soils are not suitable to the plant.

b. Cultivation:

• Propagation:- Fresh and viable seeds or vegetative through cuttings.
• 2-3 cross ploughings and leveling is needed.
• A well-prepared nursery bed is required for raising healthy seedlings. About 500 -600gms of fresh seeds/ha.
• About 2.5 to 3 kg of fresh seeds/ha. Seeds are sown directly with the onset of monsoon.
• Sowing Season:- May-July
• Spacing: 45 x 30 cm

c. Management:

• 4-6 irrigations are required during the growing season of the plant to get optimum yield.
• 2-3 weedings . First weeding after 60 days of sowing and second in 120 days of sowing.
• 15 – 25 tones of FYM / Compost / ha
• 50:75:75kg of NPK/ha for improved Green manuring practice is useful before transplanting periwinkle.

d. Diseases and pest:

1. Die-back or Twig blight (Alternaria tenuissima or Pythium butlari),
2. Leaf blight,
3. Fusarium (Fusarium solani)

4.Pythium blight (Pythium aphanidermatum)

5. Leaf spot (Myrothesium roridum).
6. Bunchy top rosette or Little leaf (Mycoplasm),
7. Top rot (Collectotrichum dematium).

• Spray Dithane Z- 78 at an interval of 10 15 days
• Insect pests: Oleander Hawk moth.

e. Harvesting:

• after six months thereafter successive harvesting of leaves can be done after an interval of three months thereafter.
• Leaves are dried in shade.
• Uproot the whole plants or the plants are cut 7-8 cm above the ground level.
• Matured fruits should be harvested by hand picking, dry then in shade and thresh lightly for collection of seeds.

f. Yield:

• Under irrigated conditions – 1 to 1.2or 2 tonnes of roots; 1.5 -2 tones stem and 1 to 1.5 tones leaves /ha
• under rainfed conditions about 1.0 tone of leaves, 1.5 tons of stem and 0.75 to 1.0 tone root / ha.

g. Chemical evaluation:

• The commercially important alkaloids are Raubacine, Ajmalicine, Reserpine from roots and Catharanthine, Vinblastine and Vincristine from leaves.

h. Uses:

• The plant has been widely used as a purgative(bowel evacuation) , antidiabetic, diuretic, haemorrhagic, antimalaria, antidysentric, antispasmodic and cancer therapy.
• Vinblastine sulphate is used mainly for treatment of Hodgkin’s disease, but it is also used against lympho sarcoma, choria carcinome, neuroblastoma and carcinoma of the breast, lungs and testes.
• It is also used against leukaemia including lympho cytic leukaemia.
• The leaves are used as antidiabetic, sedative and hypotensive.
• It is also used to cure of blood cancer. Raubiacine, Ajmalicine, Serpentine and Reserpine are mainly used for treatment of HBP.