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+---
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+title: Digitalis
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+slug: digitalis
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+description: Today I learned that Xanthopsia caused by the plant Digitalis could explain some of Vincent Van Gogh's paintings.
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+<!--- authors:
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+ - name: David Windham
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+ title: Something Else
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+ url: https://davidawindham.com
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+ image_url: https://davidawindham.com/wp-content/themes/daw/img/opengraph_image.jpg -->
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+tags: [food, wine]
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+image: https://davidawindham.com/wp-content/themes/daw/img/opengraph_image.jpg
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+hide_table_of_contents: true
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+---
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+Today I learned that Xanthopsia caused by the plant Digitalis could explain some of Vincent Van Gogh's paintings[^1].
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+<!--truncate-->
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+With the onset of spring, I was trying to figure out which plants had returned to [our garden](/notes/garden) when I discovered that the foxglove's is a Digitalis[^1] and is both medicinal and poisonous[^2]. Medicines extracted from foxglove plants were approved by the FDA in 1998 to treat congestive heart failure.
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+Depending on the species, the digitalis plant may contain several deadly physiological and chemically related cardiac and steroidal glycosides. Digitalis plants have also been called dead man's bells and witch's gloves. Some of the oculotoxic effects included blurry vision, haloed outlines, and yellowed vision.
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+It's been speculated that Vincent Van Gogh's "yellow period may have been influenced by digitalis[^3] [^4]. Van Gogh regularly visited Dr. Paul Gachet during which he was very prolific. The foxgloves are front and center in his portrait [^5].
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+<div style={{display: 'flex', justifyContent:'center', alignItems:'center', fontSize:'small', marginBottom:'20px'}}><i>Portrait of Dr. Gachet</i> - Vincent Van Gogh - 1890 - Oil on Canvas (57x56)</div>
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+---
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+[^1]: Digitalis - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digitalis
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+[^2]: _Digitalis: The Flower, the Drug, the Poison_ - https://www.aaas.org/digitalis-flower-drug-poison
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+[^3]: _Van Gogh and the Obsession of Yellow: Style or Side Effect_ - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41433-018-0204-2
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+[^4]: _Xanthopsia and van Gogh's Yellow Palette_ - https://www.nature.com/articles/eye199193.pdf
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+[^5]: _Portrait of Dr. Gachet_ - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Dr._Gachet
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