"Despite the long history of Aristolochia use in herbal remedies, evidence of the plants’ inherent danger emerged only recently. In the early 1990s, women who had received Aristolochia treatments at a weight loss clinic in Belgium developed kidney problems that progressed to renal failure and, in later years, to abnormal growths in their upper urinary tracts. More recently, Aristolochia contamination of local wheat crops was determined to be the cause of a high incidence of urothelial carcinomas of the upper urinary tract (UTUC) among rural communities on the banks of the Danube river in Europe. And in Taiwan, where recent prescription records reveal that approximately one-third of the population has taken Aristolochia-containing medicines, the incidence of UTUCs is the highest in the world."
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