A phyto-pharmacological study of some heart drugs

Abstract

A number of heart drugs or poisons belonging to the digitalis group were examined in respect to their toxicity for plant protoplasm. The method used was the same as that followed by the authors in a study of cocaine, alcohols, quinine alkaloids, etc. 1 The effect of the drugs was studied on the growth or elongation of the hypocotyls of three-day-old seedings of lupinus albus. The following drugs were examined, digitoxin, digitalin (German, Merck), digitalin Kiliani, digitonin, strophanthin U. S. P., ouabain or crystalline strophanthin and bufagin. Those principles which were not soluble in water were used in a 1 per cent. solution of ethyl alcohol, the control in such cases containing also the same amount of alcohol.

It was found that most of the above bodies were not very toxic for the plants, with the exception of bufagin. Thus digitoxin 1:100,000 gave a growth of 87 per cent. as compared with the control plants in normal Shive solution. Digitalin, Merck in the same concentration gave a growth of 86 per cent. Digitalin Kiliani in concentration of 1 :500,000 gave a growth of 49 per cent., while solutions from 1 :100,000 gave a growth of 98 per cent. Digitonin solution 1 :100.000 gave a growth of 82 per cent. Strophanthin U. S. P. 1 :100,000 gave a growth of 73 per cent. and ouabain in the same concentration gave a growth of 85 per cent.

The effects of bufagin were very different. Whereas Abel and Macht 2 found this to be an extremely potent drug for animals, its toxicity for the heart being compared to that of digitoxin and strophanthin, it was found to be very little toxic for plant protoplasm. Thus, while ouabin exerted practically no inhibition on the growth of the lupine (97 per cent) and strophanthin U. S. P. in concentrations of 1 :100,00 gave 73 per cent. growth and 1 :50,000 gave 63 per cent. of growth, it was found that bufagin in solutions 1 :100,000 gave only 20 per cent. of growth and in solutions of 1 :50,000 gave only 15 per cent. of growth as compared with the normal controls.