ON THE PHARMACOLOGICAL ACTION OF 16-ACETYL DIGITALINUM VERUM

Abstract

Digitalinum verum is a cardiac glycoside which was discovered at first by Kiliani (1) in digitalis seeds. Its pharmacological action was inves.igated by Fromherz (2), Chen (3) and one of the authors (4). Rec intly Okano et al. (5) produced 16-acetyl digitalinum verum (16AD) by partial acetylation of digitalinum verum (Fig. 1). This glycoside is highly soluble in water though parent compound, digitalinum verum is not. We used various animals to study the pharmacological action of this substance, and found that it was a much more potent and rapid ac ing compound than its parent.