Am.  Jour.  Pkarm. ) 
May,  1913.  f 
Digitalis.  Foxglove. 
223 
Accepting  our  own  inadequacy  in  the  attempt  to  untangle  this 
knot,  and  our  own  dilemma  in  this  labyrinth  of  threads,  we  ar- 
ranged with  Professor  Dr.  H.  Kiliani,  of  Freiburg,  Germany,  than 
whom  there  is  perhaps  no  better  living  authority  on  Digitalis,  to 
contribute  succinctly  to  this  treatise,  under  his  own  name,  the 
present  standing  of  the  fairly  established  Digitalis  products  and 
educts.  This  we  now  present,  believing  it  to  be  the  latest  word  on 
the  Digitalis  constituents,  products,  and  educts.15 
Chemistry  of  Digitalis  Purpurea. 
By  Professor  Dr.  H.  Kiliani,  Freiburg,  Germany. 
In  a  critical  study  of  the  more  important  digitalins  of  com- 
merce (1874),  Schmiedeberg  (Arch.  f.  experim.  Path.,  vol.  3,  p. 
16)  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  these  preparations  were  com- 
posed mainly  of  the  following  principles :  Digitonin,  digitoxm, 
digitalin,  and  digitcdein,  the  first  a  secondary  matter,  the  three 
others  acting  upon  the  heart,  digitoxin  possessing  this  property  in 
a  most  prominent  degree.  My  own  researches  have  extended  the 
knowledge  of  the  chemical  nature  of  these  substances. 
Digitonin  I  found  easily  crystallizable  from  85  per  cent,  alcohol, 
and  it  can  be  extracted  by  means  of  this  solvent  from  water- 
soluble,  commercial  seeds-digitalin.  When  crystallized,  digitonin 
is  less  soluble  in  water  than  when  amorphous ;  its  solution  foams 
when  shaken.  It  is  little  soluble  in  alcohol,  insoluble  in  ether,  chloro- 
form, and  benzin,  and  forms  an  insoluble  tannate.  The  more  recent 
researches  yield  the  formula  C54H92  0  28,  or  C55H94028 ;  warmed  with 
diluted  hydrochloric  acid,  digitonin  splits  into  digitogenin, 
C30H48O6,  or  C31H50O6,16  and  four  molecules  of  hexose  (galactose 
and  dextrose).17  Digitonin  is  inert  upon  the  heart,  but  as  a 
"  saponin  " — substance  acting  hemolytic ;  this  action  is  annulled 
by  addition  of  cholesterin  (Ranson,  Deutsche  mediz.  Wochenschr., 
1901,  p.  194),  the  latter  forming  the  inactive  compound  digitonin- 
cholesterid  (Windaus,  Ber.  d.  d.  chem.  Ges.,  vol.  42,  p.  238;  1909). — 
Schmiedeberg' 's  digitonin  was  a  mixture 1S  of  the  just  described 
substance  with  another  completely  amorphous  "  saponin." 
15  This  contribution  was  made  some  months  ago.     Possibly,  were  the 
article  now  at  his  command,  the  author  might  revise  it  somewhat. 
"Ber.  d.  d.  chem.  Ges.,  Vol.  32,  p.  2201  (1899). 
"Ibid.    Vol.  24,  p.  341  (1891). 
"Arch.  d.  Pharm.,  Vol.  243,  p.  5  (1905). 
