Digitonin
Digitonin is a steroidal saponin obtained from the foxglove plant Digitalis purpurea. Its aglycone is digitogenin, a spirostan steroid. It has been investigated as a detergent, as it effectively water-solubilizes lipids. As such, it has several potential membrane-related applications in biochemistry, including solubilizing membrane proteins, precipitating cholesterol, and permeabilizing cell membranes.
Digitonin is sometimes confused with the cardiac drugs digoxin and digitoxin; all three can be extracted from the same source.
Commercial digitonin preparations can often contain other congeners including tigonin, gitonin, digalonin, and desglucodigitonin.
Chemical properties
- Critical micelle concentration = < 0.5 mM
- Average micellar weight = 70000
- Aggregation number = 60