Foxglove

Foxglove Matthew Carter The foxglove is a toxic plant, for it is also called digitalis (Foxglove, 2005). Digitalis is a genus of about twenty species of herbaceous perennials, shrubs, and biennials. The genus was originally in the figwort family Scrophulaniaceae, but because of recent phylogenetic research it has been placed in the family Plantaginaceae. The best known species of the foxglove is known as the digitalis purpurea. The kingdom of the foxglove is plantae. The order of the foxglove is called lamiales. The class of the foxglove is known as equisetopsida. The subclass is named magnoliidae. The super order is called asteranae. Foxglove is used in modern day medicine (Foxglove, n.d.). Medicine extracted from foxglove is called digitalin. The extract contains cardiac glycosides for treatment of heart conditions. It can be used to increase cardiac contractility and as an anti-arrhythmic agent to control heart rate. It can also be used to control ventricular response rate for people with atrial fibrillation. Foxglove reduces appetite, for it has been used in drugs for weight loss. If a person overdoses the foxglove plant it can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea (Foxglove, n.d.). Also if the foxglove plant is overdosed it can sometimes result in xanthopsia, drooling, abnormal heart rate, cardiac arrhythmias, weakness, tremors, dilated pupils, seizures, and even death. Some species of the foxglove plant can contain several deadly physiological and chemically related cardiac and steroidal glycosides. The plant has been given other names such as “dead man’s bells” and “witches gloves’ because of its toxicity. The entire plant is toxic, including roots and seeds. Ingesting this plant is fatal at any time of life of the plant, but its most toxic just before seeds ripen. The upper leaves of the stem are more toxic than lower leaves. Also foxglove poisoning can cause heart block and bradycardia, which is the slowing of a heart