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Foxglove
Toxic🐾Roter Fingerhut · (Digitalis purpurea)
Plantain family (Plantaginaceae)
Description
In its first year foxglove produces only a ground-hugging rosette of leaves; in its second it throws up an unbranched stem as tall as two metres, along which bell-shaped purple flowers hang to one side — four to six centimetres long and darkly spotted on the lower lip. It blooms from June to August and favours clearings, felled areas and woodland edges. Every part is highly poisonous, carrying cardioactive glycosides such as digitoxin, digoxin and gitoxin. In 1785 the English physician William Withering described how measured leaf preparations acted in dropsy of the heart — the origin of modern digitalis therapy, which today works exclusively with isolated, precisely dosed compounds under medical supervision. In 2007 the species was named Germany's poisonous plant of the year. As few as two or three leaves can be fatal.
🌿 Risk of confusion — read before wild-harvesting!
DEADLY: All parts of the plant are highly toxic. As few as two or three leaves can be fatal.
Historical documentation only — do NOT use
These internal applications are historically documented. This plant is highly toxic — self-treatment can cause severe poisoning or death. For documentation only, explicitly NOT a recommendation.
Historically, infusions of the dried leaves were used against dropsy (edema caused by heart weakness). This use is purely historical and LIFE-THREATENING – never use for self-treatment.
In 1785 William Withering described the measured use of leaf preparations for cardiac dropsy, giving rise to modern digitalis therapy. The isolated pure compounds (digitoxin/digoxin) are today prescription medicines – the plant itself is not suitable for self-use because of its extremely narrow therapeutic margin.
DEADLY: All parts of the plant are highly toxic. As few as two or three leaves can be fatal. Poisoning causes nausea, vomiting, visual disturbances, dizziness, a dangerously slow or irregular pulse, and can lead to cardiac arrest. Never self-administer – not even in small amounts. ASPCA classification (accessed 2026-08-10): toxic to dogs and cats.
Harvested part: Leaves (historical; only under pharmaceutical control)
- DigitoxinGlycoside
Cardiac glycoside, isolated in 1874; increases the contractile force of the heart muscle and is lethal at higher doses.
- DigoxinGlycoside
Cardiac glycoside that inhibits the sodium-potassium ATPase; used medically, with a very narrow therapeutic margin.
- GitoxinGlycoside
Another cardiac glycoside of the plant, similarly toxic to digitoxin.
- [4]MonographASPCA Animal Poison Control — Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea)(accessed: 2026-08-10)
- [5]MonographCliniTox Giftpflanzen — Digitalis purpurea L.: sehr stark giftig +++ (Institut für Veterinärpharmakologie und -toxikologie, Universität Zürich)(accessed: 2026-08-10)
- [3]BookWilliam Withering: An Account of the Foxglove and Some of its Medical Uses (1785)(accessed: 2026-06-24)
- [1]WikipediaRoter Fingerhut – Wikipedia(accessed: 2026-06-24)
- [2]WikipediaDigitalis purpurea – Wikipedia(accessed: 2026-06-24)