A retrospective study looked at the survival times of all patients with colorectal cancer who were treated with mistletoe extracts at the Outpatient Oncology Clinic of Herdecke Communal Hospital between 1981 and 2001. The data were compared to corresponding patient data from the Saarland Epidemiological Cancer Registry for the same period. The median survival time of the patients treated with m...

Background: The immunomodulatory effects of Korean mistletoe (Viscum album Coloratum) on the innate immune responses of eel (Anguilla japonica) were studied. Methods: Mistletoe, Freund’s complete adjuvant (FCA), or phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) as a control was injected into eel peritoneal cavities. Results: Nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT)-positive cells in the head kidney of eel were significant...

Background. In Europe, mistletoe extracts are widely used as a complementary cancer therapy. We assessed the safety of subcutaneous mistletoe as a conjunctive therapy in cancer patients within an anthroposophic medicine setting in Germany. Methods. A multicentre, observational study was performed within the Network Oncology. Suspected mistletoe adverse drug reactions (ADRs) were described by fr...

BACKGROUND The plant pathogenic fungus, Sphaeropsis visci a dark-spored species of Botryosphaeriaceae, which causes the leaf spot disease of the European mistletoe (Viscum album). This species seems to have potential as a tool for biological control of the hemiparasite. For the rapid detection of S. visci haplotypes we tested a direct PCR assay without prior DNA purification. This approach was ...

Host size and distance from an infected plant have been previously found to affect mistletoe occurrence in woody vegetation but the effect of host plant competition on mistletoe infection has not been empirically tested. For an individual tree, increasing competition from neighbouring trees decreases its resource availability, and resource availability is also known to affect the establishment ...

BACKGROUND The effects of standardized aqueous mistletoe extracts on Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) of tumor patients needs further evaluation. METHODS in this non-interventional, prospective clinical investigation the longitudinal course of Quality of Life of 270 breast cancer patients during adjuvant chemotherapy and mistletoe therapy with abnobaVISCUM(®) Mali was investigated. HRQo...

We investigated the tritrophic interactions among southwestern dwarf mistletoe [Arceuthobium vaginatum (Willd.) Presl subsp. cryptopodum], mistletoe herbivores, and host pine (Pinus ponderosaDougl. ex Laws. and C. Laws. variety scopulorum Engelm.)-associated predators. In an observational study, we characterized differences in pine-associated arthropods and pine branch morphology between branch...

Clove mistletoe (Dendrophthoe pentandra (L.) Miq.) is a semiparasitic plant that belongs to Loranthaceae family. Clove mistletoe was traditionally used for cancer treatment in Indonesia. In the present study, we examined cytotoxicity of clove mistletoe leaves extracts against brine shrimps and conducted their antiproliferative activity on K562 (human chronic myelogenous leukemia) and MCM-B2 (ca...

The mistletoe, Viscum album, living on Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) has been reported barely to regulate its transpiration and thus heavily to affect the gas exchange of its host. The extent of this mistletoe effect and its underlying mechanism has, so far, only been partially analysed. In this study, pine branches with different mistletoe infestation levels were investigated by sap flow gauge...

To what extent do mistletoes contribute to growth decline in drought-prone forests? Can the rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations offset the negative impacts of drought and mistletoe infestation on tree growth? Long-term data on growth and intrinsic water use efficiency (iWUE) may allow answering both questions. We used dendrochronology to assess long-term changes in radial growth and iWUE in S...