Vinca Antitumor drug pharmacognosy | synonym, source, uses

Vinca Antitumor drug pharmacognosy | synonym, source, uses hello dear welcome to our website I am going to discuss some topics with you regarding vinca as a Antitumor drug. So the topics we are going to discuss are-vinca rosea, synonyms of vinca, vinca family, Macroscopic characters, Microscopic characters :, vinca alkaloids, Chemical constituents, uses.

Vinca

vinca

Vinca rosea

It is an Antitumor drug which means used in the treatment of cancer. The word Antitumor is a Latin word which means Tumor as swelling, neoplasm.

Then the question arises what is cancer. Cancer is an abnormal mass of new tissue growing in or any part of the body which is also called carcinogenic growth. vinca rosea is an Antitumor drug.

Cancer is an incurable type of disease. Only the some radioactive, metal compounds and chemotherapeutic drugs can control the cancerous growth.

Below given are some species which shows same Antitumor like action or vincas isolates:

Vinca : Catharanthus roseus

Podophyllum : Podophyllum hexandrum

Colchicum : Colchicum luteum

Benafsha : viola odorata

Anacardium : Semecarpus anacardium

Vinca plant

Below given are the description of vinca which describes its pharmacological or therapeutic profiles, I have done research to collect the information for you about their cultivation and collection, processing, chemical composition. Read below for more.

Synonyms of vinca

Synonyms are : Catharanthus, Vinca rosea, Periwinkle.

Biological source : vinca is a dried plant of Catharanthus roseus G. Don,

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Vinca family

It belongs to the Apocynaceae family.

Cultivation and collection

  • It is an annual plant and the collecting of seeds is not that much difficult.
  • It requires less irrigation and is raised off by season crop.
  • The vincas cultivation started in June to July specially in india. First crop in November.
  • Harvesting is done two to three times annually.
  • Collection of seeds and plants is uprooted in the month of February.
  • It depends on the soil and irrigation method how much the leaves will collect per hectare area.
  • First leaves are dried then sent to the market. Roots are washed and also taken to market.

Macroscopic characters

  • Colour : leaves are green, roots are pale yellow, flowers are violet, or pinkish white, or carmine red in color.
  • Odour : characteristic
  • Taste: Bitter
  • Shape : leaves are simple, petiolate, ovate, or oblong, unicostate, reticulate, entire, brittle with acute apex and glossy appearance. Flowers are bracteate, pedicellate.

Microscopic characters :

  • Epidermis present on the upper surface of the leaf with single layer of rectangular shape.
  • Presence of of palisade cells in a single layer in upper epidermis and have compactly elongated cells.
  • Spongy parenchyma is 5 to 8 layered with intercellular spaces.
  • Midrib shows the collenchyma present below the upper epidermis and lower epidermis.
  • Whereas xylem and phloem are present in the center.
  • Cruciferous stomata are present in lower epidermis.
  • Calcium oxalate crystals are absent.
  • Transverse section of vinca leaf has covering trichomes, collenchyma, palisade cells, spongy parenchyma, Lower epidermis, phloem, collenchyma, upper epidermis, xylem etc.

Vinca alkaloids

Chemical constituents :

  • vinca contains varieties of chemicals including glycosides and alkaloids.
  • The indole indoline alkaloids are very important constituents.
  • Around 60 alkaloids isolated so far from different parts of vinca.
  • The most important alkaloids with anticancer properties are vincristine and vinblastine.
  • Vincristine is obtained in a 0.0003 percent yield from crude drug.
  • The rest of the alkaloids are ajmalicine, serpentine, lochnerine and tetrahydroalstonine,
  • The total alkaloidal content of the drug is 1 percent of therapeutic active alkaloid.
  • The structure of vincristine and vinblastine is the same.
  • But some difference of there is N – methyl group in vinblastine in which N – formyl group present in vincristine. Both have different activities.
  • Alkaloids are vindoline,vindolinine and catharanthine.

Uses of vinca

  • Vincristine is used in treatment of leukemia.
  • Vinblastine is used to treat generalized Hodgkin’s disease and chorionepithelioma.
  • Vinca exhibits hypotensive and antidiabetic activity.

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Conclusion

I hope you guys get all the information about the Antitumor drug vinca rosea. If you find issues in studies, tell us in the comment section. If you read this article upto this then thank you so much.

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