Periwinkle Flower

Can you believe the most easily found along with our ornamental plants is a small Periwinkle plant
not more than few centimetres in height, in almost all our gardens, roadside, in forests growing
wildly every where any where in India with long blooming rosy flowers which are one of the best

remedies in the treatment for cancers like leucaemia, lymphomia, sarcoma, cancers of
the brain, bladder, thyroid, testis, breast and lung cancers with chemicals like vinblastine,
vincristine used in chemotherapy are derived from Periwinkle. Apart treating cancer it is
used for other ailments also discovered interestingly by chance when American solidiers
in Phillipines during II World war used Periwinkle to treat diabetes when they exhausted
their insulin stock. It is used in Jamaica also to treat diabetes. It is also used to treat
digestive complaints, menstrual pains, and even Tuberculosis. However the plant should
never be used without medical supervision as it may cause a range of side effects.
Periwinkle tea is made of flowers, leaves and the whole plant to control blood sugar in
many countries. It is used in South Africa for menstrual cramps, in India the juice is used
is applied on the stings of insects. In countries world over has processing centres to
process the dried leaves, stems and flowers of this plant to prepare drugs to fight cancer.