What are the medicinal uses of mistletoe?
Health benefits that have been attributed to mistletoe include improving cardiovascular health, relieving stress and anxiety, and boosting the immune system to help fight off colds and respiratory problems. It is also a popular complementary therapy for cancer treatment in many parts of the world.
What is mistletoe made out of?
European mistletoe has smooth-edged, oval, evergreen leaves borne in pairs along the woody stem, and waxy, white berries that it bears in clusters of two to six. The Eastern mistletoe of North America is similar, but has shorter, broader leaves and longer clusters of 10 or more berries.
What is mistoetoes leaves?
Mistletoe is a hemiparasitic plant that grows on a wide variety of host trees such as pine, oak, birch, and apple. The term hemiparasitic is used to indicate that the mistletoe plant carries out photosynthesis independently but obtains water and minerals from the host.
What is mistletoe called in nigeria?
Afomo
Mistletoe is known as Afomo in Yoruba, Awuruse in Ibo and Bokondoro in Hausa. In the study, experts compare the effects of mistletoe harvested from three different plants (Coffee, kola and cocoa) on blood samples of albino rats.
Can you Drug someone with mistletoe?
European mistletoe has been used for centuries in traditional medicine for a variety of conditions, including seizures, headaches, and menopause symptoms. Today, European mistletoe is promoted as a treatment for cancer. In Europe, European mistletoe extracts that are given by injection are sold as prescription drugs.
What does the mistletoe do?
Mistletoe is a small evergreen shrub that is semi-parasitic on other plants. Instead of producing roots in the ground, mistletoe sends out root like structures into tree branches, from which it steals water and nutrients. The tree the mistletoe grows upon is known as its host.
Can you eat mistletoe?
Mistletoe IS poisonous, although it is doubtful as to whether it will actually cause death. All parts of the plant are toxic (that’s berries, stem and leaves). The Mistletoe plant contains Phoratoxin and Viscotoxin, which are both poisonous proteins when ingested.
Can mistletoe cure diabetes?
The African mistletoe, Loranthus bengwensis L. (Loranthaceae), has been widely used in Nigerian folk medicine to treat diabetes mellitus. The aqueous extract or infusion (1.32 g/kg per day) of the leaves of this plant parasitic on lemon, Citrus limon (L.)
Can mistletoe cure epilepsy?
Despite its known toxic effects, mistletoe is a widely used traditional remedy for various ailments, most often in epilepsy therapy, and is used in various forms, alone or with other herbs. The antiepileptic effect of mistletoe has been described often in many medieval and other documents.
Is mistletoe good for fertility?
For infertility problems of various forms, mistletoe has proved highly effective. Drinking two cups of mistletoe daily will correct gynecological problems such as excessive menstruation, painful menstruation, irregular menstruation, anovulation, Amenorrhea and uterine hemorrhage.
How many species of plants are in the Loranthaceae?
Loranthaceae, commonly known as the showy mistletoes, is a family of flowering plants. It consists of about 75 genera and 1,000 species of woody plants, many of them hemiparasites.
Are there any mistletoes in the family Loranthaceae?
Originally, Loranthaceae contained all mistletoe species, but the mistletoes of Europe and North America ( Viscum and Phoradendron) belong to the family Santalaceae. The APG II system 2003 assigns the family to the order Santalales in the clade core eudicots .
How are loranths similar to their host plants?
In rain forests any resemblance between the leaves of loranths and their hosts is probably convergence in response to habitat conditions rather than a genuine mimicry. There are several pollination syndromes in the family.
What is the difference between Tristerix aphyllus and Loranthaceae?
Loranthaceae are primarily xylem parasites, but their haustoria may sometimes tap the phloem, while Tristerix aphyllus is almost holoparasitic. For a more complete description of the Australian Loranthaceae, see Flora of Australia online ., for the Malesian Loranthaceae see Flora of Malesia .