Does the Madagascar Periwinkle plant cure cancer?

Answer 1

Madagascar periwinkle, 'sadaphuli', Catharantus roseus, Vinca rocea or Vinca as it's known in the United States is an important medicinal plant used as an alternative treatment for many forms of cancer. This comes as no surprise because Vinca's cancer killing properties have been recognized by the pharmaceutical industry resulting in the isolation of several Vinca compounds that are currently used by medicine in chemotherapy treatments for childhood leukemia, Hodgkin's disease, testicular cancer and cancerous tumors. Vinca is a treasure chest plant that containins more than 400 known alkaloids!

If this is not impressive enough, Vinca taken as a daily supplement is known to improve blood supply to the brain, increase oxygen and glucose for the brain to use, prevent abnormal coagulation of blood, and raise brain levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin.

There are two classes of active compounds in Vinca: alkaloids and tannins. One important alkaloid is vincamine. A closely related semi-synthetic derivative of vincamine widely used in medicine is known as ethyl-apovincaminate or vinpocetine. It has vasodilating, blood thinning, and memory-enhancing actions shown in double-blind studies to help alleviate a type of dementia known as vascular dementia, in which the arteries supplying blood to the brain develop atherosclerotic plaques.

Extracts of Vinca have significant anticancer activity against numerous cell types. The greatest activity is seen against multi-drug resistant tumor types which suggest that there are compounds in Vinca rosea that are synergistic or additive with anti-neoplastic elements which help inhibit resistance to these drugs.

White flowers of Vinca/Periwinkle plants are used in Puerto Rico as alternative cancer treatment. There, a tea is made using its flowers. They only use the white flowers with the yellow center for this purpose. Users start with one flower making it into a tea by boiling it in 7 oz. of water for no longer than a minute. Each day they add another flower to the tea until they reach five flowers on the fifth day. They drink this five flowers' tea on an empty stomach once a day and continue taking it until their illness is resolved. It takes between 4 to 5 months for the tumor(s) to disappear. A very effective Periwinkle/Vinca extract can be purchased on the web. Twenty to thirty drops of this extract are taken in a glass of water once a day.

Some people may experience side effects associated with the prolonged use of Vinca flower tea or Periwinkle extract such as hair loss and bouts of urticaria.