Viscum eating the fruit causes a weak pulse and acute gastrointestinal problems including stomach pain and diarrhea. At least one of the active ingredients is the lectin viscumin, which is intensely toxic. It inhibits protein synthesis by catalytically inactivating ribosomes. In spite of this, many species of animals are adapted to eating the fruit as a significant part of their diet. Viscum Viscum is a genus of about 70–100 species of mistletoes, native to temperate and tropical regions of Europe, Africa, Asia and Australasia. Traditionally, the genus has been placed in its own family Viscaceae, but recent genetic research by the
Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database (Germplasm Resources Information Network), “References” as a: Porcher, M. H. et al. Searchable World Wide Web Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database (MMPND) (on-line resource). (Pl Names) The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) mentions:“Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database is searchable in any language and script and holds a lot of information including an index of medicinal plants”. Regarding the aims of MMPND, the following is said:“[...]the intention is to cover as many useful plants as possible. What is useful in one part of the world however can be a weed, even a noxious weed, in another. Our political stand is that,