Introduction Viscum album (European mistletoe) has been used for medical indications for several centuries. Hildegard von Bingen (?c.-?c.) gives several indications for the (oral) use of Viscum album. In the beginning of the 20th century, it was Rudolf Steiner (1861 ?|1925), who suggested the parenteral use of Viscum album in the treatment of cancer patients. Therefore, since 1923, Viscum album has been used and initially studied in the field of oncology. In the last decade of the 20th century, Viscum album, as an immunomodulator, has also been clinically studied in chronic viral infections like in HIV/AIDS, Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) infection in women with cervix dysplasia, and hepatitis C (HCV) infection (1-3).

It is well known, that the extracts of European mistletoe (Viscum album Loranthaceae) has a variety of biological activities such as cytokine production from immune-related cells (1-3), enhancement of natural killer (NK) cell activity (1, 4-6), and immunoadjuvant activity (7-9).

Viscum album and immunomodulation...

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