Skip to Content
Merck
All Photos(2)

Key Documents

D5628

Sigma-Aldrich

Digitonin

~50% (TLC)

Synonym(s):

Digitin

Sign Into View Organizational & Contract Pricing


About This Item

Empirical Formula (Hill Notation):
C56H92O29
CAS Number:
Molecular Weight:
1229.31
Beilstein:
78654
EC Number:
MDL number:
UNSPSC Code:
12161900
PubChem Substance ID:
NACRES:
NA.25

biological source

plant seeds (Digitalis purpurea)

Quality Level

description

non-ionic

Assay

50% (TLC)

form

powder

mol wt

micellar avg mol wt 70,000

concentration

~50% (TLC)

aggregation number

60

CMC

<0.5 mM (20-25°C)

mp

230-240 °C (dec.) (lit.)

solubility

ethanol: 10 mg/mL, clear, colorless to faintly yellow

SMILES string

C[C@@]12[C@]([C@@H]3C)([H])[C@](O[C@]34CC[C@@H](C)CO4)([H])[C@@H](O)[C@@]1([H])[C@@](CC[C@]5([H])[C@@]6(C[C@@H](O)[C@H](O[C@]([C@@H]([C@@H](O)[C@H]7O[C@@](O[C@H](CO)[C@@H](O)[C@@H]8O[C@@](OC[C@@H](O)[C@@H]9O)([H])[C@@H]9O)([H])[C@@H]8O[C@@](O[C@H](CO)[C@H

InChI

1S/C56H92O29/c1-19-7-10-56(75-17-19)20(2)31-45(85-56)37(67)32-22-6-5-21-11-26(24(61)12-55(21,4)23(22)8-9-54(31,32)3)76-50-42(72)39(69)44(30(16-60)80-50)81-53-48(47(36(66)29(15-59)79-53)83-49-40(70)33(63)25(62)18-74-49)84-52-43(73)46(35(65)28(14-58)78-52)82-51-41(71)38(68)34(64)27(13-57)77-51/h19-53,57-73H,5-18H2,1-4H3/t19-,20+,21+,22-,23+,24-,25-,26-,27-,28-,29-,30-,31+,32-,33+,34-,35+,36-,37+,38+,39-,40-,41-,42-,43-,44+,45-,46+,47+,48-,49+,50-,51+,52+,53+,54-,55+,56-/m1/s1

InChI key

UVYVLBIGDKGWPX-KUAJCENISA-N

Looking for similar products? Visit Product Comparison Guide

General description

Digitonin, a steroidal glycoside derived from the purple foxglove plant (Digitalis purpurea), stands as a versatile non-ionic detergent with diverse applications in cell biology and biochemical research. Its unique properties position it as a valuable tool for investigating cellular membranes, membrane proteins, and intracellular components. Digitonin demonstrates exceptional membrane solubilization capabilities, effectively extracting membrane-bound proteins while preserving their native conformation for studying interactions and activities. Additionally, it can also selectively permeabilize the cholesterol-rich plasma membrane, allowing for the isolation and purification of specific organelles, and facilitating the study of their functions.

The detergent′s cellular permeabilization property extends to various cell types, enabling the study of intracellular components and processes by introducing antibodies, enzymes, or other molecules into cells. In immunocytochemistry experiments, Digitonin plays a crucial role by permeabilizing cells, allowing for the labeling and detection of intracellular proteins and structures, offering insights into cellular organization and protein localization. Furthermore, Digitonin facilitates RNA extraction and purification by lysing cells, a critical step for molecular biology applications such as gene expression analysis and RNA sequencing. The detergent′s utility is also evident in immunoprecipitation experiments, where it solubilizes membrane proteins, enabling the isolation of specific protein-antibody complexes for the study of protein interactions and signaling pathways.

Application

Digitonin has been used in a study to investigate how lipopeptide toxins target biological membranes.
Digitonin has been used:
  • to incubate isolated mitochondria for removing the mitochondrial outer membrane for mitoplasts preparation
  • in the permeabilization of HeLa cells for in vitro import assay
  • as a component in HEPES-buffered saline (HBS) to permeate the cells and release the aequorins for fluorescence and bioluminescence imaging

Biochem/physiol Actions

Digitonin plays a key role in permeabilizing cell membranes. It also helps to solubilize membrane components. Digitonin specifically interacts with cholesterol in the membrane, resulting in pore formation. It helps to lyse eukaryotic cells but not bacterial membranes.

Features and Benefits

  • Can extract membrane proteins like supercomplexes from the mitochondrial inner membrane
  • Solubilizes 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (POPC) large unilamellar vesicles (LUVs) gradually at high temperature
  • Canorm micelles at a wide range of concentrations

Other Notes

For additional information on our range of Biochemicals, please complete this form.

comparable product

Product No.
Description
Pricing

Pictograms

Skull and crossbonesHealth hazard

Signal Word

Danger

Hazard Statements

Hazard Classifications

Acute Tox. 3 Oral - STOT RE 2

Storage Class Code

6.1C - Combustible acute toxic Cat.3 / toxic compounds or compounds which causing chronic effects

WGK

WGK 3

Flash Point(F)

Not applicable

Flash Point(C)

Not applicable

Personal Protective Equipment

dust mask type N95 (US), Eyeshields, Gloves

Certificates of Analysis (COA)

Search for Certificates of Analysis (COA) by entering the products Lot/Batch Number. Lot and Batch Numbers can be found on a product’s label following the words ‘Lot’ or ‘Batch’.

Already Own This Product?

Find documentation for the products that you have recently purchased in the Document Library.

Visit the Document Library

Customers Also Viewed

The dopamine D1 receptor: partial purification of a digitonin-solubilized receptor-guanine nucleotide binding complex.
H B Niznik et al.
Biochemical pharmacology, 35(17), 2974-2977 (1986-09-01)
Xianying A Cui et al.
PLoS biology, 10(5), e1001336-e1001336 (2012-06-09)
In metazoans, the majority of mRNAs coding for secreted and membrane-bound proteins are translated on the surface of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Although the targeting of these transcripts to the surface of the ER can be mediated by the translation
Michael L van de Weijer et al.
Nature communications, 5, 3832-3832 (2014-05-09)
Misfolded ER proteins are retrotranslocated into the cytosol for degradation via the ubiquitin-proteasome system. The human cytomegalovirus protein US11 exploits this ER-associated protein degradation (ERAD) pathway to downregulate HLA class I molecules in virus-infected cells, thereby evading elimination by cytotoxic
Dominic S Alonzi et al.
Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS, 70(15), 2799-2814 (2013-03-19)
Endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation (ERAD) is a key cellular process whereby misfolded proteins are removed from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) for subsequent degradation by the ubiquitin/proteasome system. In the present work, analysis of the released, free oligosaccharides (FOS) derived from all
Safaa Yehia Eid et al.
Phytomedicine : international journal of phytotherapy and phytopharmacology, 19(14), 1288-1297 (2012-11-14)
We determined the ability of some phytochemicals, including alkaloids (glaucine, harmine, and sanguinarine), phenolics (EGCG and thymol), and terpenoids (menthol, aromadendrene, β-sitosterol-O-glucoside, and β-carotene), alone or in combination with the saponin digitonin to reverse the relative multi-drug resistance of Caco-2

Our team of scientists has experience in all areas of research including Life Science, Material Science, Chemical Synthesis, Chromatography, Analytical and many others.

Contact Technical Service