A toxic organic compound derived from digitalis plants, used in pharmaceutical research and as a cardiac glycoside.
Compound word from 'gitoxin' (from 'git-' prefix referring to digitalis) plus '-genin' (a suffix indicating an aglycone compound in chemistry). Coined in pharmaceutical chemistry in the early 20th century.
Digitalis plants were used for centuries in folk medicine to treat hearts, but only 20th-century chemistry could identify gitoxigenin as the precise active molecule—sometimes the old remedies work, but science reveals why!
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