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This article posits lusmore or foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) as a border herb par excellence.1 It presents a bilingual example of a locus, source and resource of different knowledges sometimes expressed oppositionally as indigenous and scientific. It traces a genealogy of ways of knowing through the filters of a number of reified modern historically determined concepts such as nature, culture, supernatural and folklore. Discussing indigenous names and associated domains, it traces a few apparently obvious similarities and differences, but also moves further upstream to a time and place in which these may not always have been familiar in the same way. This suggests an eco-cosmology involving non-passive ancestral human and nonhuman, often feminine, adumbrating important knowledge, later folklorized as fairyland, that undergoes a complex process of transitions and translations leading, not necessarily originally, inevitably or finally, to masculine rationalist discoveries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digitalis purpurea (foxglove, common foxglove, purple foxglove or lady's glove) is a species of flowering plant in the plantain family Plantaginaceae. The objective of this study were analysis of the secondary metabolite products and investigation of its anti-microbial Activity. GC-MS analysis of methanolic extract of Digitalis purpurea revealed the existence of the 4H-Benzopyran-4-one, 6,7-dimethoxy-3-phenyl, Eucalyptol, 7,8-Dihydro-7-methyl-2-phenyl-6-p-tosylamino-pyrido[4,3-d], Octanoic acid, 6-hydroxy-8-methoxy-,e-lactone,1,3-Dioxolane, 2,2-dimethyl-4-[[(2-methylhexadecyl)oxy]meth, Bicyclo[2.2.1]heptane-2,5-diol, 1,7,7-trimethyl-, (2-endo, 5-ex, 1-Hydroxy-4,4-dimethylcyclohexanecarbonitrile, Bicyclo[3.1.1] hept-2-en-4-ol, 2,6,6-trimethyl-,acetate, 12,15-Octadecadiynoic acid, methyl ester, 2-Cyclohexene-1-methanol, 2,6,6-trimethyl, 1-(Cyclopropyl-nitro-methyl)-cyclopentanol, 11-Oxa-dispiro[4.0.4.1]undecan-1-ol, Muramic acid, 10-Chlorotricyclo[4.2.1.1(2,5)]deca-3,7-dien-9-ol, D-Fructose, diethyl mercaptal, pentaacetate, 10-Octadecenoic acid, methyl ester, 9,12-Octadecadienoic acid (Z,Z), 3h-Naphtho[2,3-b] furan-2-one, 4-hydroxy-4a, 5-dimethyl-3, 9,12,15-Octadecatrienoic acid, 2-phenyl-1,3-dioxan-5-yl ester, and a-Tocopheryl acetate. Digitalis purpurea has maximum zone against Streptococcus faecalis (4.671±0.21). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digitonin, a steroidal saponin obtained from the foxglove plant (Digitalis purpurea), displays a wide spectrum of biological properties and is often used as a model in mechanistic investigations of the biological activity of saponins. In the present study, Langmuir monolayers of zwitterionic (DPPC, DMPE, POPC, POPE, DSPC, DSPE, and DPPE) and ionic (DPPS and DPPG) phospholipids were employed in order to better understand the effect of digitonin on the lipid organization. For this purpose, a combination of surface pressure relaxation, infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (IRRAS), and fluorescence microscopy measurements was used. The observed increase in surface pressure (π) suggests that digitonin can adsorb at the air/water interface, both bare and covered with the uncompressed phospholipid monolayers. However, the detailed analysis of IRRAS and fluorescence microscopy data shows that digitonin interacts with the lipid monolayers in a very selective way, and both the headgroup and the lipid tails affect this interaction. Nevertheless, it should be noted that in no case did digitonin cause any disruptive effects on the monolayers. The DPPE and DPPS monolayers get disordered by penetration with digitonin, despite an increase in surface pressure, leading to an unprecedented LC-LE transition. Interestingly, saponin could be easily squeezed out of these monolayers by mechanical compression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]