Could the clue to a future cure lie in the past? It may sound like a philosophical musing, but a group of drug researchers in Sweden is exploring exactly that question—testing whether an archaic drug—digitoxin—could offer new hope in treating pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest forms of the disease.
The story of digitoxin began not in a laboratory but in ancient and folk medicine, where the foxglove plant (Digitalis purpurea)—from which digitoxin is derived—had been used for millennia. In traditional European herbalism, foxglove leaves were brewed into teas for various ailments. However, its potency often led to accidental poisoning, earning it a reputation as a dangerous “witch’s herb”.
In 1775, William Withering, an English physician and botanist, encountered this folk remedy from ‘Mother Hutton’, an old lady from Shropshire. Mother Hutton’s secret herbal tea, which contained about 20 ingredients including foxglove, was reportedly successful in treating ‘dropsy’—a condition we now recognise as congestive heart failure caused by fluid retention. Intrigued, Withering began experimenting with foxglove extracts on his patients around 1776.
He systematically tested dried foxglove leaf powder, documenting doses, effects and side effects in over 150 cases. Soon, Withering found that foxglove could reduce fluid buildup by strengthening the heart’s contractions, and he also identified the most effective dosage range.
After a decade of trials, Withering published his seminal work in 1785, An Account of the Foxglove and Some of Its Medical Uses: With Practical Remarks on Dropsy and Other Diseases. This book introduced digitalis to mainstream western medicine, standardising its use while warning of its toxicity. Withering didn’t isolate specific compounds—he worked with crude leaf extracts, which contained a mixture of cardiac glycosides (sugar-bound steroids), including digitoxin.
In 1875, German pharmacologist Oswald Schmiedeberg isolated and named digitoxin using chemical fractionation techniques. His work enabled laboratory testing. By the late 1800s, digitoxin was being commercially produced and used worldwide to treat heart conditions.
In 1904, German physician Albert Fraenkel demonstrated its antiarrhythmic effects. However, digoxin (isolated in 1930 from a related plant) later supplanted digitoxin because it was easier to manage clinically. Until recently, the therapeutic efficacy of digitoxin in patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction had not been conclusively established in clinical trials. That changed in August 2025, when a trial presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress showed that digitoxin improves outcomes in advanced heart failure.
Now, researchers are investigating whether digitoxin can be repurposed to treat pancreatic cancer. Laboratory studies have shown that digitoxin can disrupt cancer cell metabolism, interfere with calcium balance and, in some cases, induce cell cycle arrest or cell death.
If these findings hold up in clinical trials, it could mark the rebirth of a centuries-old drug with a new purpose.