Tag Archives: foxglove

From folklore to botany to medicine to art Botany may be considered the predecessor of modern pharmacopoeia: in antiquity, a number of plants served as therapeutic remedies.1 The earliest use of foxglove can be traced back to the Greek and Roman eras, based on reports that the ‘father of pharmacognosy,’ Pedanius Dioscorides, was aware of its effects.2 In Welsh and Irish folklore, foxglove was considered to protect against the evil eye and witchcraft.3 The first detailed account of the medicinal use of foxglove took place in the sixteenth century when Leonhard Fuchs (1501–1566) suggested that it may have diuretic properties when taken or