Synonyms: Woolly fox glove leaves, Australian digitalis.
Biological source: It consists dried leaves of Digitalis lanata Ehrhart.
Family: Scrophulariaceae
Geographical source: Southern Europe and Central Europe, USA, Holland and Equador.
Macroscopic characters: The plant is biennial in nature and having about 1 meter height. Leaves are sessile, oblong with entire margin and about 20 cm in length and 5 to 6 cm in width.
Chemical Constituent:
It mainly contains five primary glycosides and about 70 cardiac glycosides. The primary
glycosides are identified as lanatosides A, B, C, D & E. The aglycone digoxigenin and
diginatigenin are specific to Digitalis lanata while others are present in Digitalis purpurea.
Uses:
It is used as commercial source for Digoxin, lanatoside C, lanatoside A and mixture of lanatosides. Lanatoside and digoxin have same action like digitalis. Digoxin used for auricular fibrillation treatment and congestive cardiac failure. It is most preferred because of its less
cumulative action.