2023-10-18 04:00:08
Foxglove, with its bell-shaped flowers, fascinates as much as it worries. This plant has both medicinal and toxic properties for the human heart.
Accidental poisoning with wild foxgloves is extremely rare, but requires immediate medical attention.
Image Wikimedia Commons
To understand this impact on the heart, we must first understand how this organ functions. According to Hugues Abriel, researcher in ion channels at the University. the…) of Berne, the heart contains thousands of cardiac cells which regulate their contraction using tiny electrical signals. The sodium-potassium pump plays a key role here.
Zhen Wang, a biologist specializing in plant natural products at the State University of New York in Buffalo, explains that Foxgloves contain very powerful compounds called cardiac glycosides. These compounds bind strongly to the sodium-potassium pump, inhibiting its functioning.
This inhibition causes a series of chemical reactions that make the heart beat harder and faster. “An increased calcium concentration acts as a trigger (In procedural programming, a trigger is a device…), causing electrical disturbances,” explains Hugues Abriel.
This can lead to a dangerous form of arrhythmia called ventricular fibrillation, which can cause sudden cardiac arrest. However, it should be noted that digoxin, one of the cardiac glycosides, is also used as a heart medication.
For those who accidentally ingest this plant, the advice is clear: go to the emergency room immediately. Cardiac glycosides act very quickly and require medical intervention, warns Zhen Wang.
1697984860
#Attractive #Plant #Heart #Attacks #Heres