You might find Foxglove in your garden. It’s a beautiful plant with clusters of trumpet-like flowers. It’s also a deadly poison. It’s the source of the cardiac medication digitalis that is commonly used for certain cardiac arrhythmias and a few other medical conditions.
Foxglove has been around for thousands or years and has long been known for its poisonous properties. In 1329, at the ripe old age of 38, Cangrande della Scala, the ruler of Verona, Italy, and patron of Dante Alighieri, died after complaining of gastrointestinal symptoms. These symptoms are common in cases of digitalis toxicity.
Now his exhumed body has been subjected to a more modern analysis and it seems that digitalis spores were detected in his colon. Was he poisoned with this deadly drug? Maybe, maybe not. But it is intriguing.
The Crime Fiction Writer's Blog 
Susan Shea
March 17, 2015 at 11:46 am
Why “maybe not?” Unless foxglove was even then used medicinally, there’d be no reason to find the spores in his intestines, would there? Maybe he inhaled it on a walk in the garden? If so, there must have been some other unexplained deaths there and then?
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D.P. Lyle, MD
March 17, 2015 at 11:48 am
Yes the finding could be from a casual exposure to the pollen and not necessarily from any evil intent.
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Suzanne Joshi
March 17, 2015 at 1:24 pm
Interesting.
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Cheryl B. Dale
March 17, 2015 at 1:58 pm
Interesting. I wonder how many intentional deaths can be attributed to it.
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Aileen Baron
March 17, 2015 at 10:47 pm
He still has a colon after 700 years?
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D.P. Lyle, MD
March 18, 2015 at 7:50 am
He must have had a good embalmer.
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Cindy Cotter
March 18, 2015 at 8:52 pm
I just looked this up. “In February 2004 the tomb of Cangrande was opened to allow a multidisciplinary study of the corpse, which included archaeological, palaeopathological, palynological, toxicological and historical investigation. The natural mummy, still wearing its precious clothes, appeared in good state of preservation (Napione, 2006).” from http://www.academia.edu/9839417/A_medieval_case_of_Digitalis_poisoning_the_sudden_death_of_Cangrande_della_Scala_lord_of_Verona_1291-1329_
I find the matter of natural mummification at least as interesting as the digitalis poisoning.
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D.P. Lyle, MD
March 19, 2015 at 8:11 am
Excellent. Thanks.
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