Mistletoe Dendrophthoe pentandra (L.) Miq. is a parasitic plant commonly found parasitizing and infesting medicinal plants such as Cassia fistula L. This research aimed to investigate the infestation of D. on C. various trees canopy shading, infested host number, diversity. The study was conducted in Purwodadi Botanic Garden which located Purwodadi, Pasuruan, East–Java, Indonesia from January M...

1. Intraguild predation occurs when top predators feed upon both intermediate predators and herbivores. Intraguild predators may thus have little net impact on herbivore abundance. Variation among communities in the strength of trophic cascades (the indirect effects of predators on plants) may be due to differing frequencies of intraguild predation. Less is known about the influence of variatio...

Southwestern dwarf mistletoe (Arceuthobium vaginatum (Willd.) J. Presl ssp. cryptopodum) infests about 0.9 million ha in the southwestern United States. Several studies suggest that dwarf mistletoes affect forest fuels and fire behavior; however, few studies have quantified these effects. We compared surface fuel loadings and predicted fire behavior among four levels of dwarf mistletoe infestat...

Since ancient times, people have cut and joined together plants of different varieties or species so they would grow as a single plant - a process known as grafting (Figures 1 and 2). References to grafting appear in the Bible, ancient Greek and ancient Chinese texts, indicating that grafting was practised in Europe, the Middle East and Asia by at least the 5(th) century BCE. It is unknown wher...

Viscum orientale Willd. (Family-Viscaceae) is a large hemi-parasitic, much branched shrubs with opposite and oblanceolate leaves. Flowers are produced in dichasial cymose traid clusters developing into ovoid to sub-globose berry. The plant is claimed to have medicinal applications mainly in neuralgia, diabetes and in the treatment of itch. Systematic pharmacognostical evaluation of aerial parts...

Patients with breast cancer receiving adjuvant chemotherapy frequently suffer from a restricted quality of life (QoL) due to the side-effects of chemotherapy and the consequences of coping with the diagnosis. Therefore, the objective of this clinical study was to investigate the impact of PS76A2, an aqueous mistletoe extract standardised to the galactoside-specific mistletoe lectin, on QoL by p...

The mucosal adjuvant properties of the three type 2 ribosome-inactivating proteins (RIPs) from the European mistletoe, Viscum album L., were investigated. Mistletoe lectins were compared with cholera toxin (CT) as adjuvants when delivered nasotracheally together with herpes simplex virus glycoprotein D2 (gD2). All three mistletoe lectins (MLI, MLII, MLIII) were potent mucosal adjuvants. Co-admi...

Extracts from European mistletoe (Viscum album L.) developed in anthroposophic medicine are based on specific pharmaceutical procedures to enhance remedy efficacy. One such anthroposophic pharmaceutical process was evaluated regarding effects on cancer cell toxicity in vitro and on colchicine tumor formation in Lepidium sativum. Anthroposophically processed Viscum album extract (APVAE) was prod...

This study investigated the most appropriate drying method (sun drying, oven drying, or air drying) for mistletoe leaves obtained from almond tree. The phenolic constituents were characterized using high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detector, while the inhibitory effect of the aqueous extracts of the leaves on angiotensin-I converting enzyme (ACE) was determined in vitro as als...