Useful and medicinal properties of digitalis of large-sized and digitalis purple, or red

Digitalis is a large-colored - perennial herbaceous plant 0.5-1.25 m tall. Rhizome short, simple. Stem erect, weakly branched, from below granite, soft-haired. Leaves alternate, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, unequal-serrate, lower narrowed into petiole, upper sessile, almost stem-like. Flowers are pale yellow with brown veins, large collected in a one-sided brush. Calyx, peduncles and fetuses glandular-hairy. Fruits - ovoid capsule. Seeds are numerous, wrinkled. Blossoms in June-July.

Digitalis purple - a perennial plant. Stems of its height from 30 to 120 cm, erect, furrowed, evenly leafy, densely covered with simple and glandular hairs. Leaves are velvety, dark green on top, hairy, below - grayish, felted, unevenly crenate along edge, rarely serrate;flowers are in the form of a thimble. Corolla tubular-campanulate red or purple. Fruit - a box;seeds are oval, very small. Blossoms in June-July. Both species are poisonous!

Grow in the wild on sparse forests, groves, forest edges, between bushes, in areas protected from winds, but with good lighting. Cultivate foxglove in Ukraine, in Moldova, in the North Caucasus, in the wild, foxglove fungus grows in the same place.

Medicinal raw materials in both species are leaves collected during flowering, in the afternoon. The collected leaves are laid out in a thin layer on the canvas, honeycombs or sieves, dried immediately after collection and quickly, at a temperature of no higher than 80-90 ° C, in ovens, or dryers, in attics under an iron roof, in a draft.

Both types of digitalis are allowed to be used on an equal basis. The main active principles of digitalis are large-scale glycosides( hytoxin and digitoxin) and saponins

The use of digitalis in medical practice is based on the normalizing effect of cardiac glycosides on biochemical processesand the function of the neuromuscular device of the heart, which leads to the restoration of hemodynamics and metabolism

Glycosides of digitalis have a very vigorous effect on the heart( list B) and gradually accumulate in the body, which makes it necessary to perform treatment with digitalis preparations only under the direct supervision of a physician. Digitalis is prescribed for chronic heart failure, atrial fibrillation, acute infectious diseases, thyrotoxicosis, etc. Drugs digitalis slowly withdrawn from the bodyand consequently have a cumulative effect.

For prolonged use, with an overdose or hypersensitivity, digitalis can cause toxic effects, the early signs of which are a sharp slowdown in the frequency of cardiac contractions( less than 60 beats per minute), a decrease in diuresis in the presence of edema, a disturbance in the rhythm of cardiac activity, a decrease in the conductivity( prolongation of the PQ intervalon an electrocardiogram).

First aid is to abolish foxglove preparations and prescribe potassium salts( acetate or potassium chloride), the introduction of atropine and camphor, and the use of warm baths.

When prescribing foxglove preparations, strict adherence to bed rest and medical supervision are necessary.

Application of

Infusion: 0.5 g per 200 ml;1 tbsp.spoon 3 times a day with heart failure.

Leaf powder: the highest single dose for adults - 0.1 g, daily - 0.5 g( with heart failure).

It should be added that for medicinal purposes, preparations of 5 kinds of digitalis are used: digitalis red or purple;fistula large-colored or doubtful;digitalis woolly;digitalis rusty;digitalis ciliated. In the state pharmacology while included foxglove, purple, large-color, woolly, rusty.