Digitalis lactone and a triple-repeating sugar called a glycoside. Digitalis works by inhibiting sodium-potassium ATPase. This results in an increased intracellular concentration of sodium ions and thus a decreased concentration gradient across the cell membrane. This increase in intracellular sodium causes the Na/Ca exchanger to reverse potential, i.e., transition from pumping sodium into the cell in exchange for pumping calcium out of the cell, to pumping sodium out of the cell in exchange for pumping calcium into the cell. This leads to an increase in cytoplasmic calcium concentration, which improves cardiac contractility. Under normal physiological conditions, the cytoplasmic calcium used in
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