Digitonin

Digitonin is a glycoside obtained from Digitalis purpurea; the aglycone is digitogenin which is bound to five sugars. Used as a detergent, it effectively water-solubilizes lipids. As such, it has several membrane-related applications in biochemistry, including solubilizing membrane proteins, precipitating cholesterol, and permeabilizing cell membranes.

Digitonin is sometimes confused with the cardiac drug digoxin (sometimes also called digitalis or digitoxin), but has no heart-related effects.

Physical & Chemical Proterties
Chemical Formula= C56H92O29 Molecular Weight= 1229.3 Appearance     = White to off-white powder Boiling Point/Melting Point= 230 °C to 240 °C Specific Rotation= -47 TO -49º (10 g/100 ml 75% Acetic Acid at 25 °C)1 Aggregation number = 60.

Biological Properties
Rat-LD50 : 4 mg/kg body weight