Oh! Dear! Very interesting and scary! We used to have these plants a few years ago. Some caterpillars really loved to eat these leaves. These plants gave us pink flowers throughout the year. Then, they started to die so we changed to other green plants.
I just did some research. This plant has some medicinal properties too. But only very small amount should be used by skilled herbalists. The toxin from the leaves could stop the heart from beating!
I am glad we no longer have these plants as those big caterpillars were quite spooky!
There must be some environmental reason for the plants to suddenly start dying. In our place, these plants were always flourishing even in the extreme summer of this year at a temperature of 50 degrees Celsius.
Yess! This plant and many other poisonous things of this world are used to cure the most dangerous diseases. Even in Ayurveda, they are being used extensively. But obviously very very small amount otherwise it can be very dangerous.