 |
 
This is mistletoe tea, very popular as a herbal treatment across Europe.
Mistletoe contains several complex proteins called Lectins - this represents the molecular structure of one of them.
|
|
|
Mistletoe Medicine - Conventional
(additional info to be added during November and December 2009)
The herbal and complementary medicinal uses of mistletoe sit, sometimes uneasily, alongside conventional medicine.
But within the conventional medicine field there is now real interest in using isolated mistletoe chemicals - and active research into their potential use in cancer treatment.
Researchers across Europe (centres include Moscow, Berlin and London) have been investigating what specific properties of Viscum album could affect cancer cells.
They have confirmed that some chemicals in European mistletoe can have anticancer properties. These properties are linked to various cytotoxic and immuno-modulatory compounds found in mistletoe, mainly the chemicals known as Viscotoxins and Mistletoe Lectins.
Both sets of chemicals have been the subject of much research, and some clinical trials. These trials are much more specific than those involving the anthroposophic extracts as they are restricted to just one chemical rather than a mixture.
Mistletoe Lectins |
The lectins are a particularly interesting group of chemicals - the most infamous example is Ricin, a lectin from castor oil plant. This lectin, once notorious for its use in the umbrella tip poisoning of BBC World Service journalist Georgi Markov in 1978, has recently been listed, alongside one of the mistletoe lectins, in the UK Terrorism Act Schedules, as a possible 'weapon of mass destruction' in concentrated form.
These are obviously quite powerful chemicals when used in isolation - with much potential for good and bad.
|
|
Mistletoe lectins work in conventional (experimental) treatment by killing cells selectively. For example ML1 (Mistletoe Lectin 1) comprises a pair of identical molecules or 'dimer' that can attack and destroy living cells in a way that can be made cancer cell-specific
One interesting aspect of the mistletoe lectin research has been to establish their exact structure. This image shows the structure of ML2 (Mistletoe Lectin 2) as revealed by X-ray crystallography modelling at Birkbeck College, London. |
|
|
|
|
Quick links |
|
|
Want to buy mistletoe? Visit:
Need news about mistletoe? Try: 
Looking for mistletoe advice, or a speaker? Try
Interested in Mistletoe Events? Visit:
For mistletoe cards, tees, mugs etc visit 
Want to Grow Your Own? Get advice here, or buy a grow-kit
Coming soon - links to:
The Mistletoe Picture Library
|
|
|
|
|
