Hindawi Publishing Corporation e Scientific World Journal Volume 2015, Article ID 982412, 19 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/982412 Review Article Ornamental Exterior versus Therapeutic Interior of Madagascar Periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus): The Two Faces of a Versatile Herb Naghmeh Nejat,1 Alireza Valdiani,2 David Cahill,3 Yee-How Tan,4 Mahmood Maziah,1,2,5 and Rambod Abiri2 1 Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), 43400 Serdang, Selangor DE, Malaysia 2 Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), 43400Serdang,SelangorDE,Malaysia 3 School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science Engineering & Built Environment, Deakin University, Melbourne, VIC 3220, Australia 4 Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), 43400 Serdang, Selangor DE, Malaysia 5 Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), 43400 Serdang, Selangor DE, Malaysia Correspondence should be addressed to Naghmeh Nejat;
[email protected], Alireza Valdiani;
[email protected], and Mahmood Maziah;
[email protected] Received 3 July 2014; Accepted 29 September 2014 Academic Editor: Da C. Hao Copyright © 2015 Naghmeh Nejat et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Catharanthus roseus (L.) known as Madagascar periwinkle (MP) is a legendary medicinal plant mostly because of possessing two invaluable antitumor terpenoid indole alkaloids (TIAs), vincristine and vinblastine. The plant has also high aesthetic value asan evergreen ornamental that yields prolific blooms of splendid colors. The plant possesses yet another unique characteristic asan amiable experimental host for the maintenance of the smallest bacteria found on earth, the phytoplasmas and spiroplasmas, and serves as a model for their study.