\rIn nature, it occurs within 36 different species of foxglove (family Scrophulariaceae). However, in medicine, only purple is widely used. True, other species are also used for medicinal purposes, for example, large-flowered foxglove (D. grandijlora Мі11.), woolly foxglove (D. lanata Ehrh.), rusty foxglove (D. ferruginea), ciliated foxglove (D. ciliata Trautv.) and others
\r\rDescription. Digitalis purple, or red, 2-year-old, rarely perennial herbaceous plant with an erect stem “from 30 to 130 cm high. The lower basal leaves have long winged petioles, the stem leaves are elongated ovate with short petioles and serrated edges; the upper leaves are sessile, small. ( The upper side of the leaf blade is dark green, and the lower side is pubescent, grayish-felt.) The length of the rosette and lower stem leaves is 1225 cm, the width is 410 cm. The flowers are large, drooping, sitting on short pedicels, forming a one-sided inflorescence brush 4090 cm long. Purple corolla, two-lipped, irregular, tubular, cleft-petalled in the form of a thimble (hence the name foxglove), purple on the outside, white on the inside with many purple spots in the throat. The calyx is green, hairy, non-falling. Stamens four:
\rThe fruit is a 2-leaved ovoid capsule. Seeds are very small, brown, wrinkled. The weight of 1000 seeds is 0.070.08 g. It blooms in June-July. All parts of the plant are poisonous.
\rbiological features . Purple foxglove is a moisture-loving and heat-loving crop, which often freezes out in our climatic conditions. Its seeds lose their germination capacity after two or three years. In culture, it is cultivated as a 2-year-old plant, but under favorable conditions, individual specimens continue to grow even at 30% of the year of life.
\rHabitat . It grows in bright mountainous areas, on the slopes of mountains and hills, among shrubs.
\rSpreading. It is found mainly in areas of Western Europe (in the east to the Alps and the Elbe basin), in the southern part of the Scandinavian Peninsula, isolated in the Carpathians.
\rAt present, it is cultivated in many states of Western Europe, and in the Soviet Union it is cultivated in the regions of Kyiv, Poltava and Zhytomyr regions, as well as in the Krasnodar Territory. In more northern regions, purple foxglove often freezes out. In the absence of snow cover, it also freezes in the conditions of Ukraine, especially in the autumn-spring period.
\rComposition of active substances . The main active ingredients of digitalis purpurea are glycosides, of which digitoxin, gitoxin, digoxin and their corresponding native glycosides digilanides or purpurea glycosides A and B are most widely used in medicine. In addition, digitonin and digitalalin are found in the leaves. According to the State Pharmacopoeia IX, 1 g of purple foxglove leaves should contain at least 50 and not more than 60 ICE. Recently, new glycosides have been isolated from the leaves of foxglove purpurea: Diginin and digikorin (Satsiperov, 1954).
\rApplication. Purple foxglove preparations are widely used in circulatory disorders II and III degree, which is caused by a compensation disorder, with valvular heart disease, atrial fibrillation, and hypertension.
\rWater infusions and alcoholic tinctures, powders and many liquid products (digalen, diginorm, etc.) are prepared from the leaves of the plant.
\rHowever, some of them, especially digitoxin, have a cumulative property, and with prolonged use they can cause poisoning (therefore, they are alternated with other drugs that do not accumulate in the body). Digitalis preparations have a good effect in the treatment of cardiac decompensation. They are especially effective in atrial fibrillation. Academician N. D. Strazhesko called foxglove the queen of medicinal plants.
\rAgrotechnics of cultivation. Site selection. Under the purple foxglove allot areas protected from cold northeast winds. The most favorable are fertile structural soils, light, loamy-sandy loamy chernozem type, but not acidic. The best predecessors in a crop rotation are black fallows or tilled crops and winter crops going through a fertilized fallow, annual grasses for hay.
\rSoil cultivation. If foxglove is sown after winter crops, then before plowing on plowing, which is produced in early autumn with a plow with a skimmer to a depth of 2227 cm, the stubble is peeled. After prosapny plow after cleaning in the aftermath.
\rFertilizers are applied in autumn under autumn plowing in the amount of 3040 t/ha of well-rotted manure. If there is not enough manure, it should be applied together with superphosphate and potassium salt at the rate of 2025 t/ha of manure, 2.02.5 centners/ha of superphosphate and 1.01.5 kg/ha of potassium salt. Nitrogen fertilizers should be applied in the spring for pre-sowing or preplant tillage at 1.5-2.0 centners/ha.
\rReproduction. Digitalis can be propagated both by sowing seeds in the ground, and by early growing seedlings in greenhouses (in the northern regions). The seeding rate is 57 kg/ha, and with winter sowing it is 20% more. Podzimny sowing is carried out before the onset of frost without incorporation. However, early spring sowing gives the best results. With the square-nest method, the seeding rate is 34 kg/ha. The row spacing is set to 60 cm. For square-nested sowing, the field is pre-marked 60 X 60 cm. Forcing seedlings is carried out by sowing seeds in greenhouses in early spring and subsequently transplanting it into the ground so that the plant forms 34 leaves before frost.
\rCare of plantations consists in repeated loosening of row-spacings, weeding, fertilizing in the form of top dressing.
\rIf the crops are very dense, it will be necessary to partially thin them out (leaving 20 cm between them). Since seedlings are detected very slowly and, moreover, they are very small, the first loosening of row spacing should be carried out “blindly”. Plantation care in the second year of life consists in cleaning plants from the leaves of the previous year, applying nitrogen-phosphorus fertilizers in the form of top dressing with simultaneous loosening of row spacings.
\rHarvest . The leaves of the first year are traditionally harvested twice: at the end of summer (when the leaves reach the standard length of 1525 cm) and in autumn. The leaves of the second year of culture are harvested at the beginning of flowering and after they reach standard sizes. To increase the yield of leaves on 2-year-old plantations, pinching of peduncles is used. The average yield of dry leaves is traditionally 711 centners per hectare (the advanced collective farms receive 1518 centners per hectare).
\rGrowing seeds . For the cultivation of seeds, separate plots with good herbage are allocated on plantations of technical foxglove or special seed plots are laid against the backdrop of high agricultural technology. In selected areas, cleaning of leaves for raw materials is carried out only once. Seeds are harvested when the bolls of the middle tier are drilled and when the bolls of the lower tier are fully ripe. The seeds are threshed on a threshing machine with an adjusted fan to avoid blowing out the seeds. The seeds are cleaned through a set of sieves and then sorted. The yield is approximately 0.51.5 c/ha.
\rDrying. Leaves should be dried immediately after harvesting. In good sunny weather, it can also be dried in attics under an iron roof, and in cloudy weather in fire dryers at a temperature of 4060 ° C.
\rPack. Packed in bales of 50 kg.
\rStorage. After packing, the bales are pressed. Due to the high toxicity of foxglove, its leaves should be stored indoors.
\rquality requirements. In accordance with the State Pharmacopoeia X dry leaves of foxglove purple allowed: moisture 13%; total ash 18, darkened or yellowed leaves 1, stems, fruits and other parts of foxglove 1; organic and mineral impurities, 0.5% each.
\rFor whole raw materials of crushed leaves passing through a sieve with a hole diameter of 2 mm, 2%.