Oswald Schmiedeberg (1838–1921)
Medicinal plants may contain dozens of chemicals—some that are biologically active and potential drugs, others that are toxic, and still others that lack activity. Depending on the vagaries of growing and collecting such plants, the quantities of the contained chemicals may vary, complicating their doses when parts of the plants are used as drugs. Throughout the nineteenth century, considerable effort was expended to extract and isolate pure active chemicals from plant and animal sources.
Oswald Schmiedeberg studied medicine in Dorpat, Estonia, and in 1872 was appointed professor at a newly established institute of pharmacology in Strasbourg. There he researched the most important drugs and poisons of the era, one of which was digitalis. In 1875, the “father of modern pharmacology,” isolated the glycoside (sugar-containing compound) digitoxin from digitalis leaves. Over the years, other glycosides were isolated from digitalis, most notably digoxin (Lanoxin) in 1930. These glycosides were formerly widely used to treat congestive heart failure and abnormal heart rhythms.
Digitalis has no monopoly on heart glycosides. Ouabain (G-strophantin), a digoxin-like glycoside, is obtained from the seeds and bark of the Strophanthus and Acokanthera plants of tropical Africa. Tribesmen of eastern Africa have used ouabain-containing extracts to prepare arrow poisons that can kill a hippopotamus. Ouabain was formerly used to treat heart disorders but is now a research tool used to study the movement of ions across cell membranes.
In addition, the bufotoxins are a group of digitoxin-like compounds found in toad skin and have been applied to dart tips used in blowpipes for hunting by the Choco Indians of Panama and Colombia. Toad poisoning has been reported in humans and animals, with symptoms resembling digitalis-induced ventricular fibrillation. Since the early 1990s, several deaths in New York have been associated with ingestion of an illegal nonprescription aphrodisiac made from toad venom.
SEE ALSO Herbs (c. 10,000 BCE), Digitalis (1775), Propranolol (1964).
During his forty-six years as professor at the University of Strasbourg in France, Oswald Schmiedeberg, who had discovered digitoxin, trained more than 150 pharmacologists. At the time of his death, more than forty academic chairs were held by his students.