Oct. 15, 2007 :: No. 65

A Cal State Fullerton student researcher will give an Oct. 30 talk about a rainforest flower that parallels the healing flower in the 1992 movie “Medicine Man.”

In that movie, two researchers discover a tree-dwelling flower, extracts of which contain the cure for cancer. But, before they can prevent it, clear-cutting by loggers and a fire destroy the forest where the medicinal plant grows.

Like the fictional plant, extracts of the Madagascar periwinkle can be used to combat cancer, and loggers and farmers practicing slash-and-burn land clearing have destroyed nearly 90 percent of the rainforest where the periwinkle grows.

Unlike the “Medicine Man” flower, the Madagascar periwinkle’s beneficial properties were discovered long ago, and the flower is now widely cultivated. Its particular class of alkaloids has been proven to inhibit the growth of cancerous tumors.

Janice Salenga of La Verne will talk about how the periwinkle’s vinca alkaloids are produced and how they can be synthesized in a laboratory, how drugs utilizing the compounds and their derivatives are manufactured and what those drugs can do.

Salenga received her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from CSUF in 2005 and has since returned as a biochemistry graduate student. Her 4 p.m. presentation will be in Room 238 of McCarthy Hall. Seating is limited.

For more information, call 657-278-4253.

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