From the Mistletoe Plant to the Anti-cancer Medication Iscador®

The film focusses on the botanical features of the mistletoe and its strange seasonal growth pattern reflecting a behaviour in terms of space and time that is quite different from that of ordinary plants. The cultivation of the mistletoe plant on host trees, some of which are very rare, and its processing – also with regard to the anti-tumour substances it contains – are shown. These possibilities for the utilization of mistletoe were already outlined by Dr. Rudolf Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy, in the early nineteen-twenties. The second part of the film shows and explains why in the manufacture of the Iscador® mistletoe preparation, so much effort is put into harvesting and processing summer and winter mistletoe separately. Using a technically highly complex process, the separate mistletoe extracts are then mixed together to produce the specific anti-cancer medication Iscador®.