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Mistletoe | | Name : | Mistletoe | | Botanical : | Viscum album | | Latin : | Phoradendron leucarpum (Raf.) Rev. & M. C. Johnst. | | Synonyms : | Phoradendron serotinum common names:
Americanmistletoe
Birdlime
Goldenbough
Viscum album common names:
All-heal
Birdlime
Devil'sfuge
Europeanmistletoe
| | Family : | Loranthaceae | | Parts Used : | American mistletoe: Leaves
European mistletoe: Plant, berries, young twigs | | Habitat : | American mistletoe: Eastern, southern and western United States.
European mistletoe: Found in Europe and northern Asia. | | Picture : |  | | Description : | The stem is yellowish and smooth, freely forked, separating when dead into bone-like joints. The leaves are tongue-shaped, broader towards the end, 1 to 3 inches long, very thick and leathery, of a dull yellow-green colour, arranged in pairs, with very short footstalks. The flowers, small and inconspicuous, are arranged in threes, in close short spikes or clusters in the forks of the branches, and are of two varieties, the male and female occurring on different plants. Neither male nor female flowers have a corolla, the parts of the fructification springing from the yellowish calyx. They open in May. The fruit is a globular, smooth, white berry, ripening in December.
Mistletoe is found throughout Europe, and in this country is particularly common in Herefordshire and Worcestershire. In Scotland it is almost unknown.
The genus Viscum has thirty or more species. In South Africa there are several, one with very minute leaves, a feature common to many herbs growing in that excessively dry climate; one in Australia is densely woolly, from a similar cause. Several members of the family are not parasitic at all,being shrubs and trees, showing that the parasitic habit is an acquired one, and now, of course, hereditary.
Mistletoe is always produced by seed and cannot be cultivated in the earth like other plants, hence the ancients considered it to be an excrescence of the tree. By rubbing the berries on the smooth bark of the underside of the branches of trees till they adhere, or inserting them in clefts made for the purpose, it is possible to grow Mistletoe quite successfully, if desired.
The thrush is the great disseminator of the Mistletoe, devouring the berries eagerly, from which the Missel Thrush is said by some to derive its name. The stems and foliage have been given to sheep in winter, when fodder was scarce, and they are said to eat it with relish.
In Brittany, where the Mistletoe grows so abundantly, the plant is called Herbe de la Croix, because, according to an old legend, the Cross was made from its wood, on account of which it was degraded to be a parasite.
The English name is said to be derived from the Anglo-Saxon Misteltan, tan signifying twig, and mistel from mist, which in old Dutch meant birdlime; thus, according to Professor Skeat, Mistletoe means 'birdlime twig,' a reference to the fact that the berries have been used for making birdlime.Dr. Prior, however derives the word from tan, a twig, and mistl, meaning different, from its being unlike the tree it grows on. In the fourteenth century it was termed 'Mystyldene' and also Lignum crucis, an allusion to the legend just mentioned. The Latin name of the genus, Viscum, signifying sticky, was assigned to it from the glutinous juice of its berries. | | Constituents : | Mistletoe contains mucilage, sugar, a fixed oil, resin, an odorous principle, some tannin and various salts. The active part of the plant is the resin, Viscin, which by fermentation becomes a yellowish, sticky, resinous mass, which can be used with success as a birdlime.
The preparations ordinarily used are a fluid extract and the powdered leaves. A homoeopathic tincture is prepared with spirit from equal quantities of the leaves and ripe berries, but is difficult of manufacture, owing to the viscidity of the sap. | | Uses : | Nervine, antispasmodic, tonic and narcotic. Has a greatreputation for curing the 'falling sickness' epilepsy - and other convulsive nervous disorders. It has also been employed in checking internal haemorrhage.
The physiological effect of the plant is to lessen and temporarily benumb such nervous action as is reflected to distant organs of the body from some central organ which is the actual seat of trouble. In this way the spasms of epilepsy and of other convulsive distempers are allayed. Large doses of the plant, or of its berries, would, on the contrary, aggravate these convulsive disorders. Young children have been attacked with convulsions after eating freely of the berries.
In a French work on domestic remedies, 1682, Mistletoe (gui de chêne) was considered of great curative power in epilepsy. Sir John Colbatch published in 1720 a pamphlet on The Treatment of Epilepsy by Mistletoe, regarding it as a specific for this disease. He procured the parasite from the Lime trees at Hampton Court, and recommended the powdered leaves, as much as would lie on a sixpence, to be given in Black Cherry water every morning. He was followed in this treatment by others who have testified to its efficacy as a tonic in nervous disorders, considering it the specific herb for St. Vitus's Dance. It has been employed in convulsions delirium, hysteria, neuralgia, nervous debility, urinary disorders, heart disease, and many other complaints arising from a weakened and disordered state of the nervous system.
Ray also greatly extolled Mistletoe as a specific in epilepsy, and useful in apoplexy and giddiness. The older writers recommended it for sterility.
The tincture has been recommended as a heart tonic in typhoid fever in place of Foxglove. It lessens reflex irritability and strengthens the heart's beat, whilst raising the frequency of a slow pulse.
Besides the dried leaves being given powdered, or as an infusion, or made into a tincture with spirits of wine, a decoction may be made by boiling 2 OZ. of the bruised green plant with 1/2 pint of water, giving 1 tablespoonful for a dose several times a day. Ten to 60 grains of the powder may be taken as a dose, and homoeopathists give 5 to 10 drops of the tincture, with 1 or 2 tablespoonsful of cold water. Mistletoe is also given, combined with Valerian Root and Vervain, for all kinds of nervous complaints, cayenne pods being added in cases of debility of the digestive organs.
Fluid extract: dose, 1/4 to 1 drachm.
Country people use the berries to cure severe stitches in the side. The birdlime of the berries is also employed by them as an application to ulcers and sores.
It is stated that in Sweden, persons afflicted with epilepsy carry about with them a knife having a handle of Oak Mistletoe to ward off attacks. | | Dosage : | European mistletoe:
Prepare an infusion of the leaves and young branches (diced), using1 tsp. of herb to 1 pint of water. It is unnecessary to allow it tosteep more than 30 minutes. The dosage is 1 tbsp. daily, increasingto 3 if no improvement is shown. Not recommended for children.
The juice from mistletoe berries dabbed on obstinate pimpleswill cause them to disappear. And it will also loosen stiffjoints when massaged into the skin.
Cold Extract:
1. soak 1 tsp. young twigs in 1 cup of cold water for 24 hours. Take1 cup per day, in 3 equal parts morning, noon, and night.
2. soak 6 tsp. leaves in 1 1/2 cups cold water for 6 to 8 hours.Take 1 1/2 cups in the course of a day, a mouthful at a time.
Juice: Wet the leaves and young twigs. When the water hasbeen absorbed, press to extract the juice. Take 2 to 4 tsp. per day. | | Safety : | American mistletoe: The berries are poisonous, and children'sdeaths have been attributed to eating them. Do not use without medicalsupervision. May cause dermatitis. Do not use for blood pressure regulationwithout medical supervision.
European mistletoe: Use with care, preferably under medicaldirection. Large doses have a detrimental effect on heart action.Also eating the berries can be dangerous, especially for children.Do not use if Hypertensive or persons with heart trouble, particularlyin large doses. Consult a medical doctor. | | Myths : | Mistletoe is an evergreen shrub which clings to its host tree highup among the branches and gains its nourishment by penetrating thebark of its host with its roots and purloining what sap it requires.It is peculiar in the manner of its growth. The branches turn alwaystoward the object to which the plant is attached, a curious habitwhich made the ancients think of it as a visible god protecting itssacred tree and which aroused in all early peoples so much of wonder.
Mistletoe (the 'golden bough') was chief of the seven sacred herbsof the Druids, and others being vervain, henbane, primrose, pulsatilla,clover and wolf's bane. Readers keen to follow the Druidic exampleshould gather their mistletoe on the sixth day of the moon's waning.
Mistletoe appears in many Greek and Roman myths, and is reputed tohave been used to make Christ's cross (Viscum album).
Often of religious importance, mistletoe figured in folk lore talesand mythology in every country where it grew.
The power of this herb is of renewing itself when cut, one reasonwhy it was held in mystic honor. In all countries it was worshippedas the soul and embodiment of the holy forest. To the Norseman onlythe 'mistil' could inflict injury on the Sun God, Baldur; to the Romanonly the 'viscuan' could unlock the door of Hades for Aeneas to enter;to the English Druids only 'Misleta' cut from an oak by the lightof the moon could give protection to man.
Culpeper spelled this herb as misselto. |
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