AN INVESTIGATION OF THE CONSTITUENTS OF DIGITALIS PURPUREA

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Abstract
Increase in the concentration of ethanol or the inclusion of methanol, ethylene glycol or glycerol in the alkaline 3:5-dinitrobenzoic acid assay for digitalis glycosides, progressively reduces the maximum optical density of the reaction mixture. The constituents of mixtures of two digitalis glycosides have been separated by paper partition chromatography and recovered. The percentage recoveries obtained lay between 90 and 110 per cent of the quantity taken. The concentrations of four named glycosides in samples of powdered D. purpurea have been estimated by chromatographic separation followed by chemical assay. Estimates of the biological activity represented by the concentrations of these four constituents in each of the leaf samples have been made; the total biological activity of each leaf sample estimated in this way was found to be approximately half of the total biological activity of the whole leaf sample, as estimated by direct biological assay.