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Is mistletoe just a poison or a medicine?

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In The Herbal (1633), Gerard places high value on the mistletoe (Viscum album Linnaeus) for manufacture of birdlime, "...small clusters of white translucent berries, which are so clear that a man may see through them, and are full of clammy or viscous moisture whereof the best Bird-lime is made...the Learned have set down that it comes of the dung of the bird called a Thrush, ... eating his own bane...a most fit matter to make lime (glue) of to intrap and catch birds withal." It seems thrush and manmade birdlime was important for the trapping of birds,
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The Mistletoe Gatherer, 1894
Sir John Everett Millais
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but no explanation was given for why small birds were taken.

Gerard continues with the temperature and virtues (medicinal uses) of mistletoe berries, "...the Bird-lime is hot and biting, and consists of an airy and watery substance, with some earthy quality; for if it be used in outward applications it draweth humors (four fluids once believed must be kept in balance to maintain health) from the deepest...parts of the body and digesting them. It ripeneth swellings...and other impostumes (abscesses)...With Frankincense it mollifieth old ulcers and malicious impostumes...it wafteth away the hardness of the spleen."

Mistletoe contains an alkaloid, tyramine, which has been successfully used as a vasopressor (to elevate blood pressure). In Ellingwood's American Materia Medica (1919), it appears that extracts of mistletoe were used to elevate blood pressure during recovery from typhoid fever and reduce blood pressure for hypertensives.

Mistletoe berries contain toxic amines and proteins which cause gastroenteritis when ingested, unpleasant and often fatal. One of the glycoproteins found in mistletoe is classified as a lectin. Lectins can cause cells to agglutinate (adhere) or undergo mitosis and transformation. Uncontrolled lectin activity in the body is lethal, the person dying from massive antigen-antibody reaction.

But lectins can induce preferential killing of tumor cells or stimulate the immune system. According to Lewis and Elvin-Lewis (Medical Botany, 1977) there are eleven proteins in mistletoe which may have anti-cancer effects. In Europe, extracts of mistletoe have been used for cancer and HIV/AIDS treatment for many years. Perhaps Gerard was not that far off when he declared the plant to mollify malicious impostumes.

WebMD has an article on the use of mistletoe to stimulate the immune system, "Under the Mistletoe: Suzanne Somers' Breast Cancer Treatment ". To read the article click on the link:

http://my.webmd.com/content/article/31/1728_76371

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