The Thionins: A Protein Family That Includes Purothionins, Viscotoxins And Crambins

Abstract

The toxic properties of mistletoes, which were responsible for a famous death in Nordic mythology, can be ascribed to different components, including the toxic lectin viscumin (Olsnes et al., 1982) and a mixture of small basic proteins, which were first isolated by Winterfeld and Bijl (1949) and designated “viscotoxin”. The viscotoxins produce hypotension and other effects at sublethal doses (Samuelsson, 1974).