Viscum album L
Mistletoe family — Loranthaceae
What does white mistletoe look like? An evergreen, spherical bush parasitizes lindens, poplars, willows, oaks, birches, apple trees, and pears. Its leaves are opposite, oblong, leathery, with indistinct parallel veins; they stay for the winter. The flowers are yellowish-greenish, unisexual, dioecious, sitting in bunches of 5-6 in the forks of the stems and at the ends of the branches. Fruits are oval false berries, white, sticky, ripen at the end of May. Mistletoe blooms in February – April.
Where does it grow? In Roztochchi-Opilla, in Polissia, in the Forest Steppe, much less often – in the northern part of the Steppe and in the Crimea, it does not grow in the southern regions of the Steppe.
What and when are collected? Leaves and ends of branches, not thicker than a pencil, in October – March, usually after flowering, berries – in May,
When is it used? As a hemostatic and pain-relieving, anthelmintic agent; with excessive menstruation and other bleeding – after childbirth, uterine, gastrointestinal; with epilepsy, hysteria, high blood pressure (reduces the excitability of vascular-motor centers in the medulla oblongata and spinal cord).
Used in the form of a decoction. Take 4 tablespoons of mistletoe herb per 1 liter of water and boil for 5-7 minutes. They drink half a glass three times a day. The plant contains: choline, acetylcholine, pro-pionylcholine, tyramine, triterpenes (olean and ursulic acids), vitamins, syringoside, viscotoxin (a mixture of amino acids and sugars) and gamma-aminobutyric acid, which lower blood pressure. Mistletoe is used by the elderly for malaise, weakness, convulsions, headache and dizziness (atherosclerosis, hypertension), as well as for arthrosis, spondylitis, and chronic joint diseases. By increasing uterine contractions, mistletoe stops uterine bleeding. It has been established that the purified extract of mistletoe, introduced by injection, inhibits the development of cancer cells in malignant tumors that cannot be operated on.
In the form of tea, it is prepared like this. For 1 glass of cold water, take 1 teaspoon of the crushed plant and insist overnight. They drink 1/3 cup three times a day. Treatment is long. To expel roundworms, use a mixture of mistletoe leaves and valerian root in a ratio of 1:2, crushed into powder, 1 teaspoon each day for three days. At the same time, they eat a lot of fresh grated carrots.
With hypertension , a 30% tincture of raw mistletoe leaves grown on hawthorn is used on vodka, 1 teaspoon three times a day for 2-4 weeks, and then as needed.
In case of excessive menstruation, boil 1 tablespoon of a mixture (equally) of white mistletoe grass, common buckwheat grass and horsetail grass for 15 minutes in a glass of water. Drink 1 glass in the morning and in the evening.
At atherosclerosis and hypertension of the I-II degrees, infuse 1 full tablespoon of a mixture of white mistletoe, hawthorn flowers, lemon balm leaves, valerian root, periwinkle leaves and caraway fruits in a ratio of 3:2:1.5:1.5:1: 1 for 2 hours in 1 cup of boiling water; drink 2 glasses a day. Or 1 full tablespoon of white mistletoe grass, periwinkle grass, horsetail grass, thorny hawthorn flowers, yarrow grass in a ratio of 1.5:1.5:1.5:1.5:3 infuse for 3 hours in 1 glass of water, boil for 5 minutes, steam for 15 minutes and drink in sips throughout the day. Or take 1 full tablespoon of mistletoe herb mixture. Treatment is long-term, for 4 months, with a break of 3-4 weeks after 2 months of use.
A decoction of a mixture of yarrow, pepper mustard, oak bark, nettle leaves, white deaf nettle flowers (1 tablespoon each) and 1.5 tablespoons of mistletoe grass (boiled for 20 minutes in 1 liter of water) is used to make washes, lotions, and compresses for poorly healing wounds, boils, ulcers; it is also used to wash the vagina in case of baldness in women, or it is added to sitz baths in the treatment of hemorrhoids. The plant is poisonous with prolonged use.