Anticancerous Alkaloids of Catharanthus roseus

Historical uses of Catharanthus roseus in the treatment of diabetes, fever, malaria, regulation of menstrual cycle, throat infection and chest complaints have been reported. Only few plants have the anticancer properties and periwinkle is one of them. The physiologically important and antineoplastic alkaloids, vinblastine and vincristine, are mainly present in leaves and antihypertensive alkaloids are found in roots such as ajmalicine, serpentine and reserpine. Vincristine and vinblastine have extensive use in modern medicine as potential anticancer compounds. Above medicinal properties are worth attracting the attention of plant scientists to increase the secondary metabolites of this plant. The growth and active constituents production of medicinal plants can be altered by the application of several PGRs.The present study explore the role of two well known PGRs namely gibberellic acid and triacontanol to increase the productivity aanticancerous alkaloids in Catharanthus roseus L.