Botany
Botgo is a rather, slender, strongly branched, parasitic shrub. Leaves are opposite, with the petiole not distinguishable from the blade, lanceolate to roundish obovate, up to 8.5 cm long, 3.5 cm wide, and obscurely 3- to 5-nerved, the base obtuse or rounded, or somewhat wedge-shaped. Flowers are few or many, in stalkless or short cymes, of which the middle flower is female and 1.5 to 2 mm long, and the lateral ones, male. Fruit is roundish-ellipsoidal, up to 5 mm long, 4 mm in diameter, smooth, and yellowish or brownish-green.

Distribution
In Benguet to Quezon Provinces in Luzon; in Lubang; and in Palawan.
On various species of trees at low and medium altitudes.
Also occurs in India to southern China and southward to Australia.

Properties
Plant considered poisonous.

Parts used
Leaves.

Uses
Folkloric
- Plant considerde poisonous; in India used as a substitute for nux-vomica.
- Used for pustular itches. Leaves are burned to ashes which are then mixed with sulphur and coconut oil, and rubbed on the body.
- In India's Kalahandi district of Orissa, V. orientale is used with the host plant: Fruits are ground together with equal quantities of the host plant and made into small pills, one pill is taken daily every morning for 4-5 days for giddiness and stiffness.

Studies
• Antibacterial: In a study of aqueous extracts of 46 plants, Viscum orientale was one of 12 plants that exhibited antibacterial activity. Viscum orientale was effective against all test bacteria except E. coli, P. aeruginosa, P mirabilis and Strep faecalis.

Availability
Wild-crafted.

Additional Sources and Suggested Readings
(1)
Evaluation of the Antibacterial Potential of Some Plants Against Human Pathogenic Bacteria / S Satish, M P Raghavendra, and K A Raveesha / Advances in Biological Research 2 (3-4): 44-48, 2008
(2)
Ethno-medico-botanical survey of Kalahandi district of Orissa / Sobhagini Nayak, Soumit K Behera, and Malaya K Misra / Indian Jour of Traditional Knowledge, Vol 3 (1), Jan 2004, pp 72-79