Application of phytotherapeutic mistletoe preparations

The three mistletoe preparations developed in the context of herbal medicine – Cefalektin, Eurixor and Lektinol – are usually injected under the skin (subcutaneously), but in the case of Eurixor
and Lektinol, intravenous applications are also listed as a possibility.

As the medicaments should be refrigerated, they must be hand-warmed or allowed to warm to room temperature for half an hour before being injected.

In principle, the injection technique is the same as that used for anthroposophical preparations if these are injected under the skin. The same precautions should be taken for these preparations as well. In order to test for tolerance, the medicament is injected in diluted form initially.

• In the case of Lektinol, the contents of the ampoules are diluted a hundredfold with physiological saline solution (0.1 millilitres of Lektinol for every 10 millilitres of saline solution) and then injected into the skin. In the course of time, the dosage is gradually increased using the undiluted contents of the ampoule.

The most significant difference between these preparations and anthroposophical mistletoe extracts is that the phytotherapeutic preparations are always injected using the same dosages. One must only make sure that the reddening of the skin which can occur at the injection site does not affect an area measuring more than three to four centimetres in diameter.

If such a reaction does not occur, some manufacturers interpret this as a sign of particularly good tolerance, but a reddening of the skin is in fact a sign that the organism – and in particular the immune system – is responding. If this does not happen, the dosage should actually be increased until a reddening does occur. Since all three phytotherapeutic preparations are used in relatively small dosages, intolerably large amounts of fluid might be necessary to achieve the desired effect – and this might place a limit on possibilities for using these preparations. When it comes to adjusting the medicament to the patient’s individual situation, they allow for only a relatively limited degree of flexibility. It is easy to reduce the dosage by diluting the preparation with saline solution, but it is almost impossible to increase the dosage. More than 1 millilitre of fluid cannot be injected subcutaneously – it does not disperse well into the skin, forming instead large and in part relatively painful lumps which take a long time to disperse.

At a glance

All three phytotherapeutic preparations are primarily injected subcutaneously. It is difficult to adjust them to the individual situation of the patient; it is almost impossible to increase the dosage because in this case, large amounts of fluids would have to be injected, which would result in unpleasant side-effects.