Progress on tissue culture of Catharanthus roseus

Key words: 
• Catharanthus roseu.s (L.) G. Don /
• tissue culture /
• secondary metabolites

Abstract: Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don contained more than 100 known indole alkaloids, some of which had anti-cancer, lowering blood pressure and other biological activity. Catharanthus roseus had a high medicinal value, but the content of alkaloids was very low. In order to improve the content of alkaloid, the technology of tissue culture had been applied in Catharanthus roseas,such as improving the propagation coefficient and controlling the accumulation of secondary metabolites. To provide reference in further development and utilization of Catharanthus roseus drug resources, the main research progress of tissue culture of Catharanthas roseus includingy the impact factors of medicinal components accumulation, suspension cell culture applications, the impact factors of hairy roots and application of genetic engineering technology were reviewed in this paper.