A common plant in traditional Chinese medicine is highly harmful to health, according to a group of international researchers. Experiments have concluded that aristolochic acid , present in plants of the genus Aristolochia , damages DNA and causes kidney and liver cancer .
Previous studies had already revealed that this substance was carcinogenic, but two studies published in the journal Science Translational Medicine affirm that this compound causes more genetic mutations and tumors than tobacco or solar radiation . "This makes it the largest genotoxic agent discovered to date," Singaporean scientist Bin Teah Teh explained to the SINC agency.
The extract, used in Chinese herbal remedies to combat arthritis, gout and certain inflammations, has been linked to liver cancer for the first time through genetic signature identification technology.
The first evidence of aristolochic acid toxicity appeared in the 1990s. Despite the ban on the importation of this plant in countries such as the US or Taiwan, cases of kidney disease and urinary tract cancer have been on the rise, posing a real threat at a global level.
