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A genus of plants including the foxglove.

The dried leaves of the purple foxglove (Digitalis purpurea), used in heart disease, disturbance of the circulation, etc.

A genus of plants including the foxglove.

A genus of toxic herbaceous Eurasian plants of the Scrophulaceae which yield cardiotonic glycosides. The most useful are Digitalis lanata and D. purpurea.

A plant used for medicine; the foxglove.

Foxglove; stimulant to the heart.

from digitus, 'a finger,' because its flower represents a finger; Digitalis purpurea, Baccharis, Bacchar, Baccar, [?] Fox-glove, (Sc.) Deadmens bells, (Prov.) Flapdock. Ord. Scrophularineae. Sex. Syst. Didynamia Angiospermia. (F.) Digitale, Gants de notre dame, Doigtier. The leaves of this plant, which are indigenous in Great Britain, are powerfully sedative, diminishing the velocity of the pulse, diuretic, and sorbefacient. In over-doses, Digitalis causes vomiting, purging, dimness of sight, vertigo, delirium, hiccough, convulsions, and death:- all the symptoms, in short, which characterize the acro-narcotic class of poisons. Its active principle has been called Digitaline. It is a hundred-fold stronger than the most active preparation of digitalis. Digitalis has been administered in inflammatory diseases, phthisis, active hemorrhage, dropsy, &c. but although it is a powerful remedy, it has not been as much employed as it probably would have been in particular cases, owing to the over-strained eulogiums, which many have passed upon it in almost all diseases. The average dose is one grain, in the form of pill, which may be repeated every six or eight hours.

The leaves of Digitalis purpurea, fox-glove; narcotic, cardiant, diuretic.

Foxglove; a genus of the scrophulariaceae, indigenous in Europe and in western and middle Asia.

Of the U. S. Ph., the leaves of Digitalis purpurea. The chemistry of digitalis is still very obscure, despite a vast amount of study devoted to it. The leaves of Digitalis purpurea probably contain: digitoxin, the most active principle of digitalis, in small amount; digitalein, a soluble active glucosid; digitin, inactive; digitonin, a sapotoxin; and a small amount of true digitalin. Alcohol and water both exhaust the leaves, hence the infusion and the tincture differ mainly in degree of activity, contrary to common belief. The tincture also contains all of the digitonin of the leaf since this substance is soluble in dilute alcohol. Digitalis is used mainly for its action on the heart, which it stimulates to contract more forcibly, while the rate is slowed.

n. [Latin] A genus of plants used medicinally as sedative, diuretic, and narcotic; the fox-glove.