Much to my dismay it turns out that foxglove cannot be purchased or sold with a medical license, which is fair enough when you take into account that its lethal, but I still would have licked to have used it.
Although knowing me I would have probably mistaken it for tea or sweets or something.
In homage to my now lost Foxglove here are some properties it posses (copied shamelessly from wikepedia)
Medicinal Uses
[edit]Cardiac
A group of medicines extracted from foxglove plants are called
Digitalin. The use of
Digitalis purpurea extract containing
cardiac glycosides for the treatment of
heart conditions was first described in the English speaking medical literature by
William Withering, in 1785,
[10] which is considered the beginning of modern therapeutics.
[11][12]It is used to increase cardiac contractility (it is a positive
inotrope) and as an
antiarrhythmic agent to control the heart rate, particularly in the irregular (and often fast)
atrial fibrillation. Digitalis is hence often prescribed for patients in atrial fibrillation, especially if they have been diagnosed with
congestive heart failure. Digoxin was approved for heart failure in 1998 under current regulations by the Food and Drug Administration on the basis of prospective randomized study and clinical trials. It was also approved for the control of ventricular response rate for patients with atrial fibrillation. Recent American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines recommend digoxin for symptomatic chronic heart failure for patients with reduced systolic function, preservation of systolic function, and/or rate control for atrial fibrillation with a rapid ventricular response. Recent Heart Failure Society of America guidelines for heart failure provide similar recommendations. Despite its relatively recent approval by the Food and Drug Administration and the guideline recommendations, digoxin use is decreasing in patients with heart failure. This is likely the result of several factors. Digoxin has not been promoted by the pharmaceutical industry and has received little attention at national and international meetings, possibly the result of the development and promotion of other, newly patented therapies for heart failure. Also, safety concerns about digoxin therapy–increased mortality in women also may have contributed to this decrease in its use.
[edit]Variations
A group of pharmacologically active compounds are extracted mostly from the leaves of the second year's growth, and in pure form are referred to by common chemical names such as
digitoxinor
digoxin, or by brand names such as
Crystodigin and
Lanoxin, respectively. The two drugs differ in that Digoxin has an additional
hydroxyl group at the C-3 position on the B-ring (adjacent to the pentane). Both molecules include a
lactone and a triple-repeating
sugar called a
glycoside.
[edit]Mechanism of Action
Digitalis works by inhibiting
sodium-potassium ATPase. This results in an increased intracellular concentration of
sodium ion and thus a decreased concentration gradient across the cell membrane. This increase in intracellular sodium makes the actions of the Na/Ca exchange pump unfavorable, thereby decreasing sodium influx and calcium efflux via this pump. This gradient-induced inhibition results in a higher cytoplasmic Calcium concentration. The increased cytosolic calcium ion concentration results in increased calcium ion storage in the sarcoplasmic reticulum. Upon action potential (cardiac contraction) more calcium is released from the sarcoplasmic reticulum and this gives a positive
inotropic effect (higher contractility). Digitalis also has a vagal effect on the
parasympathetic nervous system, and as such is used in reentrant
cardiac arrhythmias and to slow the ventricular rate during
atrial fibrillation. The dependence on the vagal effect means that digitalis is not effective when a patient has a high
sympathetic nervous system drive, which is the case with acutely ill persons, and also during exercise.
[edit]Medicinal Toxicity
Digitalis toxicity (
Digitalis intoxication) results from an overdose of digitalis and causes anorexia, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea, as well as sometimes resulting in
xanthopsia (jaundiced or yellow vision) and the appearance of blurred outlines (halos).
Bradycardia also occurs. Because a frequent side effect of digitalis is reduction of appetite, some individuals have used the drug as a weight loss aid.
Digitalis is an example of a drug that is derived from a plant that was formerly used by
folklorists and
herbalists: herbalists have largely abandoned its use because of its narrow
therapeutic indexand the difficulty of determining the amount of active drug in herbal preparations. Once the usefulness of digitalis in regulating the human
pulse was understood, it was employed for a variety of purposes, including the treatment of
epilepsy and other seizure disorders, which are now considered to be inappropriate treatments.
[edit]Toxicity
Depending on the species, the digitalis plant may contain several deadly physiological and chemically related
cardiac and
steroidal glycosides. Thus, the digitalis has earned several more sinister names:
Dead Man’s Bells, and
Witches’ Gloves.
The entire plant is toxic (including the roots and seeds), although the leaves of the upper stem are particularly potent, with just a nibble being enough to potentially cause death.
[13] Early symptoms of ingestion include
nausea,
vomiting,
diarrhoea, abdominal pain, wild hallucinations,
delirium, and severe headache. Depending on the severity of the toxicosis the victim may later suffer irregular and slow pulse,
tremors, various cerebral disturbances, especially of a visual nature (unusual colour visions with objects appearing yellowish to green, and blue halos around lights),
convulsions, and deadly disturbances of the heart. For a case description, see the paper by Lacassie.
[14]
There have been instances of people confusing digitalis with the relatively harmless
Symphytum (comfrey) plant (which is often brewed into a tea) with fatal consequences. Other fatal accidents involve children drinking the water in a vase containing digitalis plants. Drying does not reduce the toxicity of the plant. The plant is toxic to animals including all classes of livestock and poultry, as well as felines and canines.
Digitalis poisoning can cause
heart block and either
bradycardia (decreased heart rate) or
tachycardia (increased heart rate), depending on the dose and the condition of one's heart. It should however be noted, that electric cardioversion (to "shock" the heart) is generally not indicated in ventricular fibrillation in digitalis toxicity, as it can increase the dysrhythmia in digitalis toxicity.
[citation needed] Also, the classic drug of choice for VF (ventricular fibrillation) in emergency setting,
[15] amiodarone, can worsen the dysrhythmia caused by digitalis, therefore, the second-choice drug
Lidocaine is more commonly used.
[citation needed]
[edit]Digoxigenin
