Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Herbal Heart Health

"March 23 (1826).—Lady Scott arrived yesterday to dinner. She was better than I expected, but Anne, poor soul, looked very poorly, and had been much worried with the fatigue and discomfort of the last week. Lady S. takes the digitalis, and, as she thinks, with advantage, though the medicine makes her very sick. Yet, on the whole, things are better than my gloomy apprehensions had anticipated."

- From Scott's Journal

Lady Scott developed heart problems in later life.  Digitalis, derived officially in 1785 from the foxglove plant, was a fairly familiar treatment when Charlotte began her treatment.  English physician William Withering is credited with isolating the active ingredient of what had been a folk remedy for congestive heart failure; foxglove.  In 1785, Withering publish

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