Indian Medicinal Plants by Rao Srinath; Ramakrishna Akula;

Indian Medicinal Plants by Rao Srinath; Ramakrishna Akula;

Author:Rao, Srinath; Ramakrishna, Akula;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2020-09-18T00:00:00+00:00


Digitalis purpurea L.

Synonyms: Digitalis alba Schrank.; Digitalis carnea Meing & Weing.; Digitalis

speciosa Salisb.

Classification:

Kingdom:

Plantae

Subkingdom:

Phanerogamea

Class:

Dicotyledonae

Subclass:

Gamopatalae

Series:

Bicarpellate

Order:

Personales

Family:

Scrophulariaceae

Genus:

Digitalis

Species:

Digitalis purpurea

Common names: English: Foxoglove; Hindi: Tilpushpi; Malayalam: Hridpatri; Sanskrit: Hritpatri, Tilpushpi.

Distribution: This plant is not indigenous to India; it is cultivated chiefly in the hilly regions of Northern India, such as Kashmir; it was also grown in Darjeeling and in the Nilgiri Hills, but these cultivations have become naturalized in some places.

Description: A biennial or perennial herb, about 1.2 m high; lower basal leaves long-stalked, hairy, ovate, 15–30 cm long, the upper leaves almost without stalks, becoming smaller in size as they grow upwards. Flowers 5–8 cm long, 1-sided bunches. Fruit: ovoid.

Flowering: July–August.

Fruiting: July–August.

Chemical constituents: The dried leaves, which form the drug digitalis, contain more than 40 cardiac glycosides based on 4 genins: digitoxigenin, gitoxigenin, gitaloxigenin and gitaligenin, with their formyl or acetyl derivatives. The 2 primary glycosides – purpurea glycosides A and B – form the chief constituents of the fresh leaves. However, in dried leaves, triglycosides like digitoxin and gitoxin are prominent.

Used in: Folk, Ayurveda and Siddha medicine.

Parts used: Tubers.

Uses: The dried leaves of the plant constitute the drug. The leaves must be dried at about 60 ˚C and as soon after collection as possible. The main use of this drug is in heart diseases. The drug promotes and stimulates the activity of all muscle tissues. It is used in cases of congested heart failure. All these glycosides improve the rhythm of the heartbeats, making the contraction of the heart more powerful and helping the heart to pump the blood at the time of cardiac failure. It improves the blood supply to the kidneys and thus promotes urination, removing obstructions in the kidneys.

Digitalis is used in some ointments for local application on wounds and burns. This drug, however, has some cumulative toxic effects and causes headache, giddiness, etc. These side effects must be watched.

Other species :

Another species of the genus Digitalis, viz. Digitalis fucata Ehrh. (Woolly Foxglove), is being cultivated and also occurs in Kashmir. Its flowers are smaller, hairy, and cream, yellow-, or purple-coloured. This plant has stronger medicinal properties, and its side effects are not as toxic as those of D. purpurea.

Methods of propagation: Through seeds.

Photo: https://pixabay.com/images/search/foxglove-digitalis-purpurea-/



Download



Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.