Parts Most Frequently Used: Leaf

Flavors/Temps: Very Bitter, Cold

Caution: The entire plant is toxic, including its roots and seeds. It should never be used in large doses or over a long time. Overdose symptoms include nausea, vomiting, wild hallucinations, delirium, severe headaches, tremors, convulsions and possible death.

Key Constituents: Cardiac glycosides (including Digitoxin, Digitalin, Digitalis, Dioxin, Digitalein, and Digitonin), Steroidal glycosides, Digoxigenin, Volatile oil, Starch, Gum

History/Folklore: The plant’s botanical genus, digitalis, is also the name of a pharmaceutical drug made from the plant’s constituent, digoxin, a toxic cardiac glycoside that used improperly can cause significant harm. The plant is considered poisonous. It increases cardiac contractility to help control heart rate, especially in irregular or often fast atrial fibrillation, as is in congestive heart failure. The drug digitalis, made from the plant’s compound, works by inhibiting sodium-potassium ATPase. This causes an increase in intracellular concentrations of sodium ions decreasing the concentration gradient across the cell membrane. This switches the cell from pumping sodium into itself to pumping calcium out of the cell, this increase in cytoplasmic calcium in turn improves cardiac contractility.
Powdered foxglove leaf is administered in pill form.

Foxglove is often confused with what is commonly called Chinese foxglove root (Radix Rehmannia) with foxglove (Digitalis purpurea). They are two entirely different plants.

Foxglove increases the functionality of all muscle tissue, especially the heart and arterioles. If foxglove does not increase heart activity, lily-of-the-valley (LINK) can be substituted and is often useful in this circumstance. Foxglove is famous for its ability to improve the circulation of blood. It can also treat internal hemorrhage, inflammatory disorders, acute mania, and epileptic cases.

Foxglove’s toxic properties can lead to nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and even collapse, tremors, or seizures. A frequent side effect of digitalis, the drug made from foxglove’s compounds, is reduced appetite leading to weight loss. The drug is a perfect example of a pharmaceutical being derived from a plant that was well known for its effect on the heart.

The constituent digoxigenin is a steroid found exclusively in the flowers and leaves of foxglove. It is used as a molecular probe to detect DNA or RNA.

Early herbalists used the leaves to increase all forms of muscle tissue function, but especially muscles of the heart, to improve heart rate and raise blood pressure. It can take up to 12 hours for its effects on the heart to be appreciated. Other odd traditional uses included it being used to bind wounds and other conditions that have nothing to do with the plant’s real properties or benefits. It was also used to treat epilepsy, delirium, and acute mania but it remains unclear if the results were real or imagined.

Digitalis, the toxic compound found in foxglove, is also an excellent antidote to aconite poisoning when given as a hypodermic injection.

The plant is also a powerful diuretic and has been used effectively to treat dropsy, especially if this condition is associated with heart problems.

Legend says that Vincent Van Gogh used foxglove to treat his epilepsy.

In Roman mythology, depending on the source, either Hera or Juno impregnated themselves without a man by touching foxglove to their bellies and breasts, thus giving birth to either Mars or Vulcan. The plant itself is associated with Saturn or Venus.

In old Scandinavian legends, it is said that the fairies taught the foxes to ring foxglove bells to warn each other of approaching hunters.

Dew collected from foxgloves can be used in rituals to communicate with the fairies and the leaves are used to break fairy enchantments. Do not let it touch your skin or inhale the smoke if you burn the leaves….it is toxic. If you want fairies to visit you, plant foxglove, it will attract them to your garden.

Yellow foxglove is not used much medicinally, it is the Wooly foxglove that is the main source of cardiac glycosides having three times the physiological effects as other common foxglove varieties. This does not mean that the common foxglove does not still have a profound tonic effect on the heart.

The normal life cycle of the plant is two years, but they can sometimes take root and throw up flowers for several seasons. The flowers are very popular with honey bees and other small insects, who like to hide out in the blossoms to stay warm and dry on wet chilly evenings. The bottom leaves should always be left behind to allow next year’s stalks to grow back, never cut it off at the root.

The plant’s botanical name means “finger-like” and refers to the ease with which the flowers can be slipped onto a finger, or some say resemble a finger. The name “foxglove” derives from an old English legend that says foxes must have worn the flowers on their paws to help them move more stealthily through gardens and hen houses. The hillsides where foxes made their dens were often covered with toxic flowers. The other common names, such as “witches glove” derive from the plant’s toxicity. An old saying says, “foxglove can raise the dead and kill the living.”