A toxic ingredient in a popular herbal remedy is linked to more than half of all cases of urinary tract cancer in Taiwan where use of traditional medicine is widespread, said a US study Monday. Aristolochic acid (AA) is a potent human carcinogen that is found naturally in Aristolochia plants, an ingredient common in botanical Asian remedies for aiding weight loss, easing joint pain and improving stomach ailments.
The ancient herb has been touted around the world for thousands of years for everything from gout to childbirth, but scientists now know it carries serious risks of causing kidney disease and urinary cancers...
The herb is known in Europe by the name birthwort because it was often given to women during childbirth. Derived from the Greek, "aristolochia" means noble birth. "This has been used by every culture in the world from the earliest written record," said Grollman.
Signs of harm have emerged in recent decades, and the acid is blamed for causing a kidney disease called Balkan endemic nephropathy, first described in 1956, that afflicted rural farmers in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Serbia. The villagers were found to be baking seeds from a weed called Aristolochia clematitis in their bread.
The US Food and Drug Administration warned of the risks of aristolochic acid in 2001 after two patients developed serious kidney disease after using botanical products containing it.Amen.
"Natural is not necessarily safe, nor is long-term usage," said Grollman.
Plants in general, having few physical defenses against vegetarians, have evolved an incredible range of chemical defenses. Most people would rightly be afraid to eat the random weed out of the forest, and yet many will willingly drink the herbal tea of unknown origin.
Most of the carcinogens we experience in life come from the plants we eat; that doesn't mean to avoid eating vegetables, but it does mean it makes sense to be a little discerning...
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