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Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don (family Apocynaceae) is an ornamental plant with medicinal values. It
is an evergreen shrub and found to grow in the world in many places around the country. Alkaloids of
this plant have a great medicinal importance to treat diabetes, malaria, cancer etc. Secondary
metabolites interfere with the extraction of pure genomic DNA, therefore extracting DNA from
Catharanthus roseus is a challenging task. This study describes a rapid and reliable cetyl
trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) protocol suited specifically for extracting DNA from plants which
are rich in polysaccharides and secondary metabolites, and the protocol also excludes the use of
expensive liquid nitrogen. Initially, the plants were grown as garden plants because of their beautiful
flowers of different colors, such as pink, red and white. Though considerable variations can be observed
in the species around the world, no informations on the origin is available. Attempts have not been made
so far to study the genomic relations among Catharanthus roseus cultivars. In view of these facts the
study was conducted for assessment of variations in different cultivars of Catharanthus roseus by using
Restriction Endonuclease and RAPD PCR. In RAPD total seven primers were used out of which the
amplifications of only three primers (OP-04, OP-06 and OP-07) were satisfactory. In Restriction
Endonuclease, EcoRI and HindIII gave many bands in agarose gel. This work can lead to development of
an efficient protocol to study the genetic diversity among different cultivars of Catharanthus roseus using
Restriction Endonuclease and RAPD PCR.
Keywords: Variations, Cultivars, Catharanthus roseus, Restriction Endonuclease, RAPD PCR.