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CHINESE HERB MAY CAUSE CANCER
The Chinese herb Arustolochia fangchi may cause cancer as well as kidney failure. Patients at a Belguim weight loss clinic took the herb in error on average for about a year. Staff at the clinic had prescribed the herb Stephania tetrandra, but the pills that the patients took also included Aristolochia, possibly because of an error in manufacturing. Eighteen patients who accidentally took the herb developed cancers of the urinary system. These patients had already experienced severe kidney failure as a result of taking another combination of two Chinese herbs ( S tetrandra and Magnolia officinalis) and needed either dialysis or kidney transplants. Since there is virtually no control over the quality of such products, it is not usually known what is actually contained in the preparations. Cases of kidney failure from Aristolochia have also been reported in France, Britain, Spain, Japan, Taiwan, and the United States.
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