Digitalis purpurea

Digitalis purpurea, or Foxglove, is a toxic biennial plant from the Plantaginaceae family. It contains powerful cardiac glycosides—primarily digitoxin and digoxin—which profoundly influence the heart muscle, conduction system, and renal function. In toxicology, it slows and strengthens cardiac contractions, lowers pulse, and can cause arrhythmias, vomiting, and visual disturbances. In homeopathy, Digitalis acts especially on the heart, liver, and gastrointestinal system, with far-reaching implications in weakness, fainting, and circulatory collapse.

First proven by Hahnemann, later extended through toxicological data and extensive clinical confirmations from Hartlaub, Nenning, and Hughes. Many symptoms derived from both homeopathic proving and poisonous overdoses.

Digitalis purpurea represents the fragile life force strained by circulatory weakness. Its essence lies in the fear of death that arises from the failing heart, the struggle to maintain equilibrium in the face of energetic collapse. It is the remedy of slow failing, of one who grows pale, weak, and distant with every heartbeat. It speaks to guilt, fear, and the quiet terror of one’s own mortality, often found in elderly patients, the broken-hearted, and those suffering from loss or abandonment. The emotional life is inextricably tied to cardiac rhythm: the less hope one has, the slower the beat becomes.

• Heart and circulatory system – primary affinity; acts on myocardium and conduction
• Liver – congestion, jaundice, portal stasis
• Gastrointestinal tract – nausea, vomiting, slow digestion
• Urinary organs – suppression, scanty urine
• Eyes – visual disturbances, flickering, yellow-tinted vision
• Nervous system – slow pulse with mental depression
• Male sexual organs – prostate, testes (swelling, suppression)

The Digitalis state is defined by a deep-seated melancholy, despair, and a sense of impending doom, often linked to heart complaints. The patient fears death, especially during palpitations, and may feel that the heart will stop unless they keep moving—a paradox since movement worsens their condition [Kent]. There is anxiety focused on the heart, with slow comprehension, apathy, and great fearfulness. Emotional shocks cause physical collapse. Mental dullness may alternate with oversensitivity. Obsessive brooding over one’s health, guilt, or impending misfortune is common, often coexisting with hypochondriasis and forgetfulness. Depression with physical weakness is a key keynote.

Sleep disturbed by palpitations, anxiety, or dyspnoea. Cannot lie down due to heart suffocation. Dreams anxious, fearful. Unrefreshing sleep. Daytime sleepiness with lethargy. Wakefulness before dawn.

Frightening dreams of death, falling, or heart failure. Dreams of being chased, suffocated. Anxiety of being alone or deserted. May dream of flooding or failing organs. Dreams often reflect cardiac fears.

Marked physical prostration, especially from slight exertion. Sudden sinking spells. Pulse slow and weak. Heart and liver are central organs of disturbance. Coldness and cyanosis. Symptoms worse from motion, worse lying left side, better by lying still. Dropsical states common. Trembling, faintness, and anxiety dominate. Emptiness and weakness throughout body.

Febrile states rare but may occur in hepatitis or endocarditis. Low-grade fever with chills. Chill begins in extremities. Fever with bradycardia. Profuse sweat after mild fever. Cold sweat from fear or heart pain.

Chilliness with internal heat. Extremities cold despite room temperature. Sweat clammy, cold, and exhausting. Sweat on forehead and hands during collapse. Alternation of flushes and chills.

Vertigo on moving, especially on sitting up or turning in bed, often accompanied by nausea, dim vision, and cardiac distress. The head feels heavy and full, particularly in the forehead. Throbbing headaches from congestion, made worse by lying down. Confusion and dizziness from heart failure or liver complaints. Sensation as if the brain would come out through the forehead. Cold sweat on forehead during faint spells. Neuralgic pains in temples or occiput, with cold hands and slow pulse.

Visual symptoms are dramatic and hallmark. Bluish or greenish-yellow halo around objects, with flickering or dim vision [Clarke]. Objects may appear too large or too small (macropsia or micropsia), with blurred outlines or double vision. Sudden blindness or loss of focus from cardiac insufficiency. Eyelids twitch or feel heavy. Pupils dilated and sluggish. Retinal haemorrhage and degeneration documented in toxicology. Sensitivity to light, especially during gastric or hepatic attacks.

Buzzing, roaring, or pulsation in ears synchronous with the heartbeat. Sudden deafness with vertigo. Ears feel stuffed or plugged. Tinnitus before fainting. Hearing diminished during jaundice or exhaustion.

Coldness of tip of nose, sometimes bluish in heart failure. Nosebleeds in elderly or weak patients. Nasal mucosa pale. Sensation of fullness or obstruction from sluggish circulation. Sneezing brings on faintness or palpitations.

Pale, sunken, bluish lips, or deathly facial hue—indicative of collapsing circulation [Boericke]. Expression is anxious, pinched, with sunken eyes. Cold sweat on face. Flushes of red alternating with pallor. Cyanosis in cheeks and perioral area. Puffiness of eyelids or face in heart failure.

Tongue coated white or yellow; may tremble on protrusion. Bitter taste in mouth. Salivation excessive. Dryness with sticky mucus. Tongue swollen in hepatic conditions. Breath may be offensive in jaundice. Speech slow, trembling during weakness.

Gnashing of teeth in convulsions (rare). Toothache from congestive states or neuralgia, better with cold applications. Gums swollen, bleed easily. Tooth pain linked to liver or heart disturbances.

Dryness or constriction in throat. Sore throat with hoarseness. Tickling or spasmodic sensation provoking cough. Difficulty swallowing liquids. Throat symptoms often secondary to gastric or hepatic complaints.

Tightness of chest with anxiety. Pain shooting through heart to back or down left arm. Oppression of chest with laboured breathing. Stitching pain on inspiration. Mucus rattling in aged or weak patients. Cardiac asthma. Sighing respiration. Wheezing on exertion. Hydrothorax in decompensated heart failure.

Profoundly affected. Pulse slow, weak, intermittent, or irregular [Kent]. Heart feels too slow, as if it would stop. Palpitations from the least motion or emotion. Cyanosis from cardiac stagnation. Sensation as if heart stopped then started with a thump. Cardiac insufficiency with dropsy, syncope, cold limbs. Sudden bradycardia during collapse. Heart murmurs with dyspnoea. Mitral and tricuspid lesions especially covered.

Breathing slow, sighing, or laboured. Dyspnoea with faintness. Respiratory failure during cardiac decompensation. Must sit up to breathe. Orthopnoea in sleep. Breath cold, shallow. Rattling cough in weak patients.

Constant nausea, not relieved by vomiting—a major keynote [Hering]. Vomiting of food, bile, or mucus; comes in waves. Nausea worsened by motion, smells, or visual stimuli. Pressure in epigastrium with anxiety. Heart symptoms often provoke gastric distress. Craving for bitter or sour things, but aversion to meat. Empty, sinking feeling in stomach; sensation as if it would drop. Regurgitation with faintness. Hiccough common.

Liver enlarged, tender, with dull aching pain. Jaundice with yellow eyes, clay-coloured stool, and dark urine. Cutting, colicky pains in right hypochondrium. Abdomen distended with flatulence. Portal congestion leads to sluggish digestion. Fullness, heaviness, especially after meals. Intestinal inertia with constipation alternating with sudden diarrhoea. Hepatic symptoms aggravate cardiac complaints.

Constipation with no desire and great inactivity of rectum. Hard, dark stools. Straining may provoke faintness or cold sweat. Diarrhoea, sudden and profuse, alternating with constipation. Rectal haemorrhoids with oozing, bleeding, and pain during defecation. Stool greenish, offensive during hepatic flare.

Scanty, dark, albuminous urine. Painful urging with dribbling. Suppression of urine in heart or liver failure. Burning during urination. Sensation of incomplete voiding. Urine thick, dark, and slow to pass. Dropsy from renal congestion. Albuminuria or blood in urine during acute phases.

Craving for bitter things. Aversion to meat and milk. Nausea from odours or sight of food. Vomiting after cold drinks. Eating even a little worsens symptoms. Indigestion after fruit or fat. Slowness of digestion is marked.

Prostate enlarged, tender. Suppressed or diminished sexual desire. Genital atony. Emissions rare and exhausting. Testicular pain in suppressed miasms or chronic heart cases. Penile flaccidity. Fear or guilt around sexuality.

Menses irregular, often suppressed. Faintness and palpitations during menses. Leucorrhoea thick, yellow, and acrid. Breasts flabby or painful. Palpitations or collapse during pregnancy. Weakness and fainting after coition. Prolapse from weakness of pelvic tissue.

Pain in dorsal region, worse with breathing. Weakness in lumbar spine. Coldness in sacral area. Stitching in scapulae. Pain radiating from heart to spine. Must lie back for relief.

Trembling, weakness, especially in hands. Cold, blue hands and feet. Dropsical swelling of legs and ankles. Numbness or tingling in fingers. Cramping in calves. Fingers cyanotic. Nails blue or brittle. Cannot rise from chair without support.

Pale, cold, bluish. Icy coldness of limbs, particularly in heart failure. Jaundiced, yellow tinge in hepatic conditions. Dropsical swelling, especially of lower extremities. Cold clammy sweat. Itching worse at night. Petechiae or haemorrhagic eruptions in advanced cases.

• Lycopus virginicus – For slow, irregular heart in thyroid cases
• Cactus grandiflorus – Constriction of heart like an iron band; more violent heart symptoms
• Crataegus – Heart weakness, more general and less violent, used in elderly
• Kalmia – Radiating cardiac pain; more rheumatic in nature
• Naja – Slow pulse, heart fear, more valvular lesions
• Aconite – Sudden collapse, but more acute and feverish

• Lycopus virginicus – For slow, irregular heart in thyroid cases
• Cactus grandiflorus – Constriction of heart like an iron band; more violent heart symptoms
• Crataegus – Heart weakness, more general and less violent, used in elderly
• Kalmia – Radiating cardiac pain; more rheumatic in nature
• Naja – Slow pulse, heart fear, more valvular lesions
• Aconite – Sudden collapse, but more acute and feverish

• Invaluable for bradycardia, especially if irregular and linked to weakness
• Key remedy in heart failure with cyanosis, faintness, and cold extremities
• Effective in cardiac dropsy, especially with scanty urine
• Use in jaundice from hepatic congestion
• Mind symptoms always reflect cardiac status—treat the heart to restore the soul

Heart

• Palpitation, lying on left side, agg.
• Pulse, slow, irregular, weak
• Fear heart will stop unless in motion

Mind

• Fear of death
• Despair, hopelessness
• Anxiety about the heart

Gastrointestinal

• Nausea, persistent, not relieved by vomiting
• Vomiting after eating
• Liver, pain, enlargement

Skin

• Cold, clammy
• Cyanosis
• Dropsy

Urinary

• Suppression of urine
• Albuminuria
• Burning urination

• C. Hering – Guiding Symptoms: Heart, liver, and gastric systems extensively described
• J.T. Kent – Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica: Mental symptoms, cardiac pathology, and modalities
• William Boericke – Pocket Manual: Digest of key organ affinities and clinical use
• John Henry Clarke – Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica: Rich repertorial guidance on eyes, urinary and generalities
• Allen’s Encyclopaedia: Comprehensive toxicological and clinical details confirming remedy action