• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.704-711
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• 2011

Traditionally, mistletoes have been used as immunostimulant for the management of certain diseases such as cancer with high profile immune depleting potentials. In order to examine the safety of the 20 kGy irradiated cold water extract powder of mistletoes, we performed a 90-day repeated-dose toxicity study with ICR mice. The mice were treated with daily doses of the 20 kGy irradiated cold water extract powder of mistletoes by gavage at 0, 20, 100, and 500 mg/kg/day for 90 consecutive days. We recorded clinical signs of toxicity, body weight, organ weights, histological changes in target organs, hematology, and clinical blood chemistry analysis data for all mice. There were no significant changes in body and organ weights during the experimental period. The hematological analysis and clinical blood chemistry data revealed no toxic effects from the 20 kGy irradiated cold water extract powder of mistletoes. Pathologically, neither gross abnormalities nor histopathological changes were observed between the control and treated mice of both sexes. Collectively, these data suggest that the 20 kGy irradiated cold water extract powder of mistletoes have a high margin of safety.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.27-33
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• 1996

The aim of this research was to investigate the chemical components of C30 compounds, especially triterpenoids in Korean native mistletoes of Korthalsella japonicus Engler parasiting to Camellia japonica L., Viscum album var. coloratum (Kom.) Ohmi, to Quercus acutissima Carruth. and Loran-thus yadoriko Sieb. to Neolitsea sericea (BI.) Koidz. For the identification of triterpenoidal components, alkaline hydrolyzates of mistletoes meals were analyzed by TLC, GC, and GC/MS. The content of oleanolic acid and ursolic acid derivatives were highest in K. japonica. In V. album, there was no big difference between leaves and twigs in content. but oleanolic acid in leaves. and olean-12-en-$3{\beta}$-ol and lup-20(29)-en-3-one in twigs were prominent. Similiar to V. album in L. yadoriki there was no difference between leaves and twigs in content, and both olean-12-en-$3{\beta}$-ol, lup-20(29)-en-3-one and urs-12-en-$3{\beta}$-ol in leaves, lup-20(29)-en-3-one in twigs were abundant. Triterpenoids as olea-12-en-$3{\beta}$-ol, lupe-20(29)-en-3-one, 3-oxo-urs-12-en-24-oic acid, and $21{\beta}$-A'-neogam-macer-22(29)-en-3-ol acetate were common in all samples tested. whereas ursolic acid only in P. japonicus and ursenol in L. yadoriki were detected. And P. japonicus had the largest number of triterpenoids and showed the highest in biological activity. So it is noted that Korean mistletoes tested in the study had three types of triterpenoid, oleanane, lupane, and ursane, irrespective of hosts, sampling positions and species.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.1-9
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• 2000

This experiment was accomplished to investigate antioxidative activity of Korean mistletoe by organic solvents partitioning of methanol extact of 3 Korean mistletoes, fractionationing on column chromatography, and evaluation the reduction of a free radical ${\alpha}$,${\alpha}$-diphenyl-${\beta}$-picrylhydrazyl. Butanol partition of Loranthus yadoriki MeOH extract showed higher electron donating ability than ${\alpha}$-tocopherol. It was thought phenolic compounds including gallic acid account for antioxidative activity, on execution sub-fractionation, electron donating ability evaluation, and GC/MS analysis, but further studies on what are major actives must be investigated exactly.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nutrition Society Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.175-175
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• 2002

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.138-148
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• 2013

The three biochemical constituents pointed out as the bioactive principles of anticancer activity of Korean mistletoes, Viscum album var. colorantum, epiphyting to different host trees, different region, and different growth environments were compared. The characterizing compounds were lectin, which was glycoprotein reported has anticancer activity, homoflavoyadorinin-B, which was flavonoid glycoside reported as an antioxidant and oleanolic acid, as an anticancerous triterpenoid. We established the analysis methods for three characterizing compounds and determined by HPLC spectrophotometer, respectively. The average content of the lectin in V. album was 1.75 mg/g of dried plants and those of homoflavoyadorinin-B and oleanolic acid were 3.51 and 5.37 mg/g, respectively. The variations of contents of the three characterizing compounds according to epiphytic trees and growth region were observed but not found statistical significance clearly. We came to the conclusion that the contents of bioactive constituents of V. album except homoflavoyadorinin-B are not affected by epiphyting trees or growth environments.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.89-96
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• 2003

Korean mistletoes extracts were investigated for in vitro antioxidation activity, with 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazine(DPPH), and an inhibitory effect on oxidative DNA damage by using comet assay. The Korean mistletoes were 4 different kinds classified by their host plants (Korean Viscum sp. in Quercus acutissima Carr., Korean Viscum sp. in Castanea crenata, Korean Viscum sp. in Betula platyphylla, and Korean Viscum sp. in Salix koreensis). The samples were extracted with ethanol, and fractonationed with n-butanol, ethyl acetate, chloroform, n-hexane, and second distilled water. Among them, ethyl acetate fraction from Korean Viscum sp. in Betula platyphylla showed the strongest activities to electron donating ability on 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl(DPPH) and the protective effect on oxidative DNA damage.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.389-393
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• 2009

Regional distribution of mistletoe (Viscum album var.coloratum) and its habitual environments were investigated in order to obtain the basal data on the artificial propagation to cope with its increasing consume for medicine. Mistletoes inhabited throughout the overall region of the South Korea investigated. They were parasitic mainly to the Quercus spp. including Q. serrata and rarely to the Castanea crenata var. dulcis, Prunus serrulata var. spontanea, Alnus japonica, and Pyrus pyrifolia, etc. Mistletoes were not observed on the conifers such as Pinus densiflora and Pinus koraiensis and some deciduous broad-leaved trees species such as Zelkova serrata, Diospyros kaki, Acer mono, Acer palmatum, and Morus alba. Their habitats were located from zero to 1,200 m above sea level nevertheless the direction or slope of the mountains, suggesting that artificial propagation can be carried out nation widely to the well-grown parasite tree species. Parasitic specificity related to the physical and chemical characteristic of the epidermal tissues will be studied further.

• Journal of Korea Foresty Energy
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.49-60
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• 2000

The traditional Korea medical book already recorded various biological activities of the Korean mistletoes. The objective of this study was examine antifungal activities of MeOH extract from the Korean mistletoe through column chromatography on three fungi, such as Tyromyces palustris Endothia nitschkei and Trichophyton rubrum. No mistletoes had anti-fungal activity against T. palusties. Extracts of V. album var. coloratum showed the highest hyphal growth-inhibitory activity against E. nitschkei and leaf extract of this species had higher activity than twig extract. Further fractionation of most active fraction and following antifungal assay showed that its anti-fungal activity might be caused by synergism if its components. It was suggested that Viscum album var. coloratum shows significantly antifungal activities against E. nitschkei and T. rubrum. Further examination is needed to find out more exact active compounds.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.592-598
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• 2000

A lectin (agglutinin, VCA) from Korean mistletoe (Viscum album L. coloratum) was isolated by affinity chromatograpy on a asialofetuin-Sepharose 4B. The molecular weights of A- and B-chains of VCA were different from those of VAAS. The VCA recognized the antibody of VAAs in the Western blot analysis and ELLA system. We also investigated the synergistic effects of the components in mistletoe by dividing the extract into different molecular weight fractions.

• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.4-11
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• 2009

Anatomical features of both leaves and stems of the four mistletoes in Korea (Viscum album var. coloratum, Korthalsella japonica, Loranthus yadoriki, L. tanaka) and of their secondary haustorial structure within several host plants were investigated. Among the four mistletoes, there were diagnostic characters of the anatomy of leaves and stems which enabled us to distinguish the four taxa. Leaves were observed to have three distinct characters including unifacial or bifacial leaves, the number of vascular bundles in the midveins, and the level of development of sclerenchyma cells. There were four diagnostic characters of stems: overall morphology of stems in transverse view, degree of cuticle development, arrangement of vascular bundles, and features of the sclerenchyma and pith. In order to determine secondary haustorial traits, the research focused on the seven host plants of L. yadoriki and on the five host plants of K. japonica. The following features were found to be important: presence or absence of an aerial runner root, the shape of the haustorial strand and flange, the degree of penetration into host tissues, and their development of shaft in transverse view, the development both of secondary haustorial cells and short tracheid in hyphae. Korthalsella japonica and L. yadorki were clearly distinguished by these characters. The secondary haustorial forms in each host were somewhat different, due to varying degrees of development in the strength of the host plants' wood. However, qualitative characters like the final position of the secondary haustorial penetration into host tissues and the development of short tracheid cells were not only affected by the degree of development of the host plants, but also useful for the systematic study.