city of Petra. The tourist party is made up of the Boynton family, under the control of malicious Mrs Boynton; Miss Pierce, a timid former nursery governess; Dr Gerard, a psychologist; 41 the outspoken lady politician Lady Westholme; and Sarah King, a young doctor. On the first afternoon at Petra the group takes the opportunity to explore the site, leaving Mrs Boynton alone in the hot sun. When the party returns to camp Mrs Boynton is dead. The death would have been attributed to natural causes were it not for a mark left by a hypodermic syringe on Mrs Boynton’s wrist, and some missing heart medicine. Fortunately for all concerned (though maybe not for Mrs Boynton), Hercule Poirot is holidaying nearby, and he is asked to investigate the true cause of death.
The suspected poison in the case of Mrs Boynton is digitalis, an extract of the foxglove plant, which is often prescribed to treat certain heart conditions. Digitalis is an effective medium of murder, with the added benefit that symptoms of an overdose resemble those of the disease the drug is prescribed for. Plus it is readily available, and lethal in very small quantities. Incredibly, very few murderers have used this toxic substance, or perhaps many have but they got away with it. But before you rush to take out hefty life-insurance policies on your closest and wealthiest relatives, or start growing foxgloves in your garden, remember that the drug is detectable even in minute quantities.
The digitalis story
‘Digitalis’ refers to a group of related compounds extracted from plants of the genus Digitalis , commonly known asfoxgloves. There are more than twenty species, all containing digitalis compounds in varying amounts and proportions. In the plant, digitalis compounds act as a deterrent against animals that try to eat it. In mammals these compounds have a specific and dramatic effect on the heart. The chemical structure of these compounds includes a component known as a glycoside, hence digitalis compounds are known as ‘cardiac glycosides’. Toxic digitalis compounds are found in all parts of the plant; they can irritate the skin, and cause delirium, tremors, convulsions, headaches and fatal heart problems if ingested.
Digitalis plants are native to western Europe, western and central Asia, north-western Africa and Australasia. Though the plants grow wild, they are often cultivated because of their spectacular spikes of flowers in a range of colours. In their first year foxglove plants produce just a stem and soft, hairy, lance-shaped leaves. In two Agatha Christie stories, the short story The Herb of Death and the novel Postern of Fate , foxglove leaves are used to poison a meal by mixing them with sage and spinach leaves. One murderer deliberately planted foxgloves in a kitchen garden amongst the sage so the leaves would be picked by accident (this seems an unlikely mistake for an experienced cook to make). The distinctive flowers appear in the second year of growth, and look like caps or bells.
The name ‘foxglove’ has been in use for hundreds of years, since at least the fourteenth century, but the origins of the name are obscure and many theories have been put forward to explain it. An attempt was made to throw some light on the subject by Dr Prior, an authority on the origin of popular names, in the 1866 book English Botany :
Its Norwegian name, Revbielde , foxbell, is the only foreign one that alludes to that animal … In France it is called Gants de Notre Dame ; in Germany Fingerhut . It seems most probable that the name was, in the first place, foxes’ glew, or music, in reference to that favourite instrument of an earlier time, a ring of bells hung on an arched support …
Prior proposed an alternative theory in the same book. ‘The “folks” of our ancestors were the “fairies”, and nothing was more likely than that the pretty coloured bells of the plants would be designated “Folksgloves”, afterwards “Foxglove”.’ The
The suspected poison in the case of Mrs Boynton is digitalis, an extract of the foxglove plant, which is often prescribed to treat certain heart conditions. Digitalis is an effective medium of murder, with the added benefit that symptoms of an overdose resemble those of the disease the drug is prescribed for. Plus it is readily available, and lethal in very small quantities. Incredibly, very few murderers have used this toxic substance, or perhaps many have but they got away with it. But before you rush to take out hefty life-insurance policies on your closest and wealthiest relatives, or start growing foxgloves in your garden, remember that the drug is detectable even in minute quantities.
The digitalis story
‘Digitalis’ refers to a group of related compounds extracted from plants of the genus Digitalis , commonly known asfoxgloves. There are more than twenty species, all containing digitalis compounds in varying amounts and proportions. In the plant, digitalis compounds act as a deterrent against animals that try to eat it. In mammals these compounds have a specific and dramatic effect on the heart. The chemical structure of these compounds includes a component known as a glycoside, hence digitalis compounds are known as ‘cardiac glycosides’. Toxic digitalis compounds are found in all parts of the plant; they can irritate the skin, and cause delirium, tremors, convulsions, headaches and fatal heart problems if ingested.
Digitalis plants are native to western Europe, western and central Asia, north-western Africa and Australasia. Though the plants grow wild, they are often cultivated because of their spectacular spikes of flowers in a range of colours. In their first year foxglove plants produce just a stem and soft, hairy, lance-shaped leaves. In two Agatha Christie stories, the short story The Herb of Death and the novel Postern of Fate , foxglove leaves are used to poison a meal by mixing them with sage and spinach leaves. One murderer deliberately planted foxgloves in a kitchen garden amongst the sage so the leaves would be picked by accident (this seems an unlikely mistake for an experienced cook to make). The distinctive flowers appear in the second year of growth, and look like caps or bells.
The name ‘foxglove’ has been in use for hundreds of years, since at least the fourteenth century, but the origins of the name are obscure and many theories have been put forward to explain it. An attempt was made to throw some light on the subject by Dr Prior, an authority on the origin of popular names, in the 1866 book English Botany :
Its Norwegian name, Revbielde , foxbell, is the only foreign one that alludes to that animal … In France it is called Gants de Notre Dame ; in Germany Fingerhut . It seems most probable that the name was, in the first place, foxes’ glew, or music, in reference to that favourite instrument of an earlier time, a ring of bells hung on an arched support …
Prior proposed an alternative theory in the same book. ‘The “folks” of our ancestors were the “fairies”, and nothing was more likely than that the pretty coloured bells of the plants would be designated “Folksgloves”, afterwards “Foxglove”.’ The
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