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Foxglove (Digitalis
purpurea) Foxglove is a biennial plant that
is native to England. There are many common names to
foxglove.
The Irish call it 'dead man's thimbles' because of the
harmful juice
that it secrets. The name foxglove derives from the legend
that
bad fairies gave the plant to the fox so it could quiet
its footsteps
with the blossoms while raiding the chicken farms. Willliam
Withering, botanist and physician, observed that the
country
people of Shropshire used foxglove leaves as a cure for
dropsy
and from this he showed the value of foxglove in treating
heart
disease. The active ingredient is the glycoside digitoxin
which
has been isolated and used as digitalis, for congestive
heart
failure and abnormal heart beat. Overdose of the drug
causes
colour vision abnormalities (yellow-blue), visual hallucinations,
scotomas, retinal toxicity with abnormal ERG amplitudes. |
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