Overview

But first a few words of advice:

These pages have reviewed the role of the mistletoe Viscum album in medicine - its use in herbal, anthroposophic and conventional medicine have been briefly reviewed.

Other species of mistletoe will have differing properties - the attributes of Viscum album cannot be applied to other mistletoes. This is a particularly important point if you are in North America - as the 'Christmas' mistletoes there have very different properties and can be dangerously toxic. Don't use these for mistletoe tea!

Always read the label on medicines, and obtain professional medical advice.

Mistletoe Tea & other herbal products

Despite being widely available in continental Europe mistletoe tea is difficult to obtain in the UK and Ireland.

Some wholefood and herbal shops stock the Floradix brand - which is imported from Germany. This can also be bought online - some stockists are outlined below:

Other mistletoe herbal products can also be bought online - again a few examples are listed below. Note that most are sold without making any statement was to what they are for... so treat these with caution.

Important note: If you're buying real mistletoe as a herbal product make sure you know which species it is. Buy from reputable firms with proper labelling - some websites (including some Ebay suppliers) do not specify a species - and so their product could be very unsafe.

Always read the label on medicines, and obtain professional medical advice if in any doubt.

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Mistletoe medicine textbooks

The book links below open in Amazon UK. Both books are English language accounts of mistletoe in medicine. The first, Iscador - Mistletoe in Cancer Therapy, is written for the non-specialist and describes complementary cancer therapy. The second, Mistletoe - The Genus Viscum, is a much more academic text, covering a wider topic area.

Some links to specific scientific papers will be added here soon. In the meantime a good start - for both the lay reader and the scientist - is to visit the US National Cancer Institute site's mistletoe pages. These give an overview of clinical trials and an independent assessment of current thinking.

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Links to some of the complementary mistletoe medicines used in cancer therapy are given below. Their websites (mostly German language) provide a wealth of information on mistletoe therapy.

Helixor, based at Rosenfeld, Germany

Iscador, made by Weleda in Switzerland

Abnoba, based in Pforzheim, Germany

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(Updated information being added during autumn 2009)