Large-flowered foxglove (Digitalis grandiflora L.)

Description:

Tall (up to 1 m) perennial herbaceous plant with straight stems, mostly at the bottom of obtuse hairs. The leaves are alternate, lanceolate, long-pointed, basal and lower stem gradually narrowed into a short petiole, the rest are sessile, gradually decreasing upwards. The flowers are large, sit one by one on horizontally deflected pedicels emerging from the axils of the bracts, and are collected in a one-sided multi-flowered apical raceme. Corolla elongate-bell-shaped, unequal, with an oblique 4-cut limb, light yellow, inside with an indistinct network of reddish-brown veins and spots, 4 stamens. The fruit is an ovoid, 2-nested box, opening with 2 valves. Foxglove blooms in June-July. Large-flowered foxglove is found on slopes, shrubs, forest edges

Harvesting, description of raw materials:

For medicinal purposes, the leaves of digitalis large-flowered (Folia Digitalis) are used. Collect rosette leaves of the first year of plant development and stem leaves during flowering in subsequent years. Raw materials are dried quickly in dryers at a temperature not exceeding 50-60 degrees. or outdoors in the sun, spreading in a thin layer. This type of foxglove is approved for use on a par with cultivated purple foxglove. Currently, the need for raw materials is almost completely covered by cultivated digitalis, and the collection of raw materials from wild-growing large-flowered foxglove is not often done.

Contains active substances:

The leaves of foxglove grandiflora contain cardiac glycosides, which are the strongest poisons. Of these, digitoxin (0.385%).

Medicinal use:

In medical practice, digitalis products (leaf powder, infusion, tincture) are used for chronic heart failure due to decompensation of the heart muscle, for valvular defects and other cardiac disorders. Digitalis preparations are slowly excreted and therefore have a cumulative effect.

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