Periwinkle

Parts Usually Used

The plant

Description of Plant(s) and Culture

Periwinkle is a prostrate, evergreen, creeping plant; the stem bears opposite, dark green, shiny leaves at the joints. During March and April a pale blue flower grows from each stem joint on a long, hollow stalk.

Where Found

Grows wild in Great Britain and Europe and is also cultivated there and in the United States. The pale blue or white flowered plants grow in woods and orchards, hedges, but the purple ones only grow in gardens.

Medicinal Properties

Astringent, sedative, nervine

Biochemical Information

Vincamine

Legends, Myths and Stories

Culpeper tells that the legend has it that if the leaves are eaten by a man and a woman together, it will cause love between them and they will stay in love all their lives. Both V. major and V. minor make good ground cover, very hardy, thrives in shade. One of the best plants to grow beneath trees and other areas where a carpeting effect is desired. The herb is propagated by root divisions and cuttings.

From several plants of the Vinca family is obtained the drug vinblastine sulfate, now being tested in America for the treatment of Hodgkins’ disease.

Uses

Historically, herbalists utilized periwinkle for digestive complaints such as diarrhea, flatulence, and indigestion, as well as for mouth and throat ulcers, skin and scalp disorders, excessive menstruation, and general hemorrhage. Folk tradition held that chewing the plant helped check bleeding from the nose or mouth and eased toothache. Herbalists also prepared it as a tea for nervous conditions, and it was traditionally regarded as a circulatory tonic intended to support cerebral blood flow, address arteriosclerosis, and lower high blood pressure.

Bibliography

The Complete Medicinal Herbal , by Penelope Ody, Dorling Kindersley, Inc, 232 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, First American Edition, copyright 1993 Culpeper’s Complete Herbal & English Physician: Updated With 117 Modern Herbs , by Nicholas Culpeper, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, 1990, (reprint of 1814) The Herb Book , by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY.

copyright 1974. The Magic of Herbs , by David Conway, published by Jonathan Cape, Thirty Bedford Square, London, England. , 15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023 The Rodale Herb Book: How to Use, Grow, and Buy Nature’s Miracle Plants (An Organic gardening and farming book) , edited by William H. Hylton, Rodale Press, Inc. , 1974