Digitalis purpurea pharmacological forms, extracts of this plant did not frequently cause intoxication because they induced nausea and vomiting within minutes of ingestion, preventing the patient from consuming more. The main toxins in "Digitalis" spp. are the two chemically similar cardiac glycosides: digitoxin and digoxin. Like other cardiac glycosides, these toxins exert their effects by inhibiting the ATPase activity of a complex of transmembrane proteins that form the sodium potassium ATPase pump, (Na/K-ATPase). Inhibition of the Na/K-ATPase in turn causes a rise not only in intracellular Na, but also in calcium, which in turn results in increased force of myocardial muscle contractions.
Orazio Comes experimentation in that sector. In 1958 the museum of the botanical institute of Portici, hosted in the Royal Palace, was named after him. Orazio Comes Orazio Comes (11 November 1848 – 13 October 1917) was an Italian botanist. From 1906 to 1917 he directed the Agricultural Higher Institute of Portici, in which, thanks to Vincenzo de Cesati, he begun teaching since 1877 as assistant of Nicola Pedicino for the chair of botany, to whom he succeeded in 1880. In his works he studied the physiology and plant pathology of Neapolitan mushrooms and agricultural plants, such as beans and tobacco. From