Catharanthus roseus (Sadabahar) :Flower,Morphology and Uses - INDIAN FORESTRY

Sadabahar (Catharanthus roseus)

Catharanthus roseus flower

Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Asterids
Order:	Gentianales
Family:	Apocynaceae
Genus:	Catharanthus
Species:	C. roseus

Catharanthus roseus, commonly known as the Madagascar periwinkle or rosy periwinkle, is a species of Catharanthus native and endemic to Madagascar.In india it is known as Sadabahar in hindi , Madanah in sanskrit.

Sadaabahaar

Description

It is an evergreen subshrub or herbaceous plant growing 1 m tall.It grows as a weed as well cultivated. It grows on sandy loam soil. In this plant 100 alkaloids have been reported. It has unique alkoloids Vincristine and Vinblastine which makes it special from other plants.It is also however widely cultivated and is naturalised in subtropical and tropical areas of the world.As an ornamental plant, it is appreciated for its hardiness in dry and nutritionally deficient conditions, popular in subtropical gardens where temperatures never fall below 5 °C to 7 °C, and as a warm-season bedding plant in temperate gardens.

In the wild, due to Slash and burn agriculture its habitat is affected and now this plant is considered as Endangered plant. 

Distribution

It is ditributed in India, China, Indonesia, Isreal, Madagascar, Phillipines, South Africa, USA, Austrailia, It is so well adapted to growth in Australia, that it is listed as a noxious weed in Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territor.

Morphology

Leaves :-

The leaves are oval to oblong, 2.5–9 cm long and 1–3.5 cm broad, glossy green, hairless, with a pale midrib and a short petiole 1–1.8 cm long; they are arranged in opposite pairs.

Leaf of Catharanthus roseus

Leaf

Flower :-

The flowers are white to dark pink with a darker red centre, with a basal tube 2.5–3 cm long and a corolla 2–5 cm diameter with five petal-like lobes.

Bark :-

Fruit :-

The fruit is a pair of follicles 2–4 cm long and 3 mm broad.

Propagation

Stem, root are used for propagation.

In stem cutting 9 nodes are must than we used it as a propagation.

20-25 ppm of auxin should be present.

Uses:-

• It is cultivated as herbal medicine and known to be ornamental plant.
• In traditional Chinese, they also used it as treatment of diabetes, malaria.
• From this plant Two allkaloids are extracted i.e. VINCRISTINE and VINBLASTINE which is used for the treatment of ofleukemia and Hodgkini lymphoma.
• C. roseus is used in plant pathology as an experimental host for phytoplasmas.This is because it is easy to infect with a large majority of phytoplasmas.

NOTE;- C. roseus ca be extremely toxic if humans consumed orally