Digitalis purpurea, also known as the foxglove, is beautiful but highly poisonous. Digitalis purpurea flowers are pink to purple and sometimes white. The flowers are bell-shaped and formed close together from the top to the bottom on each spike. This plant is used for medicinal purposes. The plants have been used over the centuries by many doctors and have been intensively studied. Chemicals extracted from the leaves (digoxin and digitoxin) have been used as medicine to treat cardiac arrhythmias and atrial fibrillations and still today are one of the main sources of treatment for congestive heart failure. The medicinal compounds are cardiac glycosides that have also been used as an anti-tumor drug which work against human cancer cell lines.
