Tags: Chemical Compound, Chemical Substance.
Digitonin is a glycoside obtained from Digitalis purpurea; the aglycone is digitogenin a spirostan steroid. 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.
