As if taking a cue from nature, where Black-chinned Hummingbirds (Archilochus alexndri), sample Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea), a mass spectrometer, this one a Micromass LCT with its iconic hummer design, samples the cardiac glycosides in Foxglove.
Even the ancient Egyptians used cardiac glycosides medicinally, and understood their narrow therapeutic ratio (the small step from affective dose to one that could kill the patient). Here you see a portion of the Ebers Papyrus, written around 1550 BC, which lists hundreds of remedies, including cardiac glycosides.
You also see a pocket Withering Botanical Microscope, designed for fieldwork. William Withering, a physician, extracted digitalis from Foxglove to treat dropsy (cardiac edema), and in 1875 wrote a monograph on Foxglove and some of its medical uses. Digital is still used in the treatment of congestive heart failure, and some cardiac arrhythmias.
For the last five months at Alliance Analytical, a San Francisco Bay Area
start-up that strives to keep sound--but no longer used--lab equipment in
service and out of the landfill, I've had the opportunity to examine a
broad array of instruments used in the pharmaceutical industry. In the
process, I've gained an ever greater appreciation for the role of plants,
AND instruments in the long and complex process of developing cures. It
has been reported, for example, that a total of 26 plant-based drugs were approved from
2000 to 2006, and the global market for plant-derived drugs is projected
to reach more than $26 billion next year.
I wonder what effect, if any, the glycosides in Foxglove nectar have on the hummingbirds and whether “nectar-sampling” species might lead us to promising sources of future plant-derived drugs.
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