Mistletoe

Western Bulk Herbs – Mistletoe

Western Bulk Herbs Mistletoe is a great herb for relaxing the nervous system. A powerful nervine tonic, this herb can help reduce heart rate and blood pressure by strengthening the peripheral capillaries and acting directly on the vagus nerve. This reduction in blood pressure can also relieve headaches. This herb may also help to reduce cancer with anti-tumor properties. Try combining this herb with Hawthorn Berries as they function well together.

Latin Name:
Viscum album

Common Name:
European mistletoe, common mistletoe, Mistle

Parts Used:
Dried, Leafy Twigs

Properties:
This herb is a nervine, providing relief and is a hypotensive, cardiac depressant. May also be anti-tumor.

Traditional Uses:
Druids believed that the herb was helpful as an antidote to poisons, and to improve virility in animals. This herb has been used socially in kissing rituals for hundreds of years in various cultures.

Internal Applications:
When brewed as a tea, this herb helps to relax the nervous system, improve blood pressure, and reduce and overactive heartrate.

Topical Uses / Applications:
N/A

Culinary Uses:
N/A

Chemical Properties:
Triterpenoid saponins, choline, histamine, anti-tumor proteins, viscotoxin (a cardio-active polypeptide)

Folk Lore:
In the holiday season, it is said that if a man and a woman are to meet underneath hanging mistletoe, they are to kiss. In Celtic society, the leafy herb was used to ward off disease and evil. Scandinavian mythology had Loki kill his brother Baldr with an arrow made of mistletoe, Greek heroes used it to enter the underworld.

Cautions:

*Disclaimer: These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Resources:

David Hoffman’s The New Holistic Herbal
Faulkes, Anthony (Trans.) (1995). Edda, pages 48–49. Everyman. ISBN 0-460-87616-3
“Christmas Eve” from Washington Irving, The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.” (Rev. ed. 1852), p.254 (available on Google Books).