Madagascar periwinkle

This unassuming pink plant from Madagascar yielded drugs that transformed the treatment of childhood leukaemia.

The Madagascar periwinkle is a small perennial or subshrub growing to 0.5–1 m, with glossy, dark green leaves and five-petalled flowers in pink, white or purple, often with a darker eye. It flowers almost all year round and tolerates drought, heat and poor, sandy soils. The whole plant is poisonous. It contains more than a hundred alkaloids, including vincristine and vinblastine, used in chemotherapy for leukaemias and lymphomas. Today it is a popular ornamental grown throughout the tropics.

Significance in the country

The periwinkle is a Madagascan endemic that has spread all over the world – its story is a prime example of the value of Madagascar’s biodiversity. On the island it has long been used in folk medicine.

Where it grows

Wild mainly in dry, sandy areas in the west and south of the island; as a ruderal and ornamental plant it grows throughout the country.

More: Wikipedia (en) Wikipedia (pl)