Deadly Herbal medicine
Herbal medicines called a global health risk
Oleg Lischuk, N+1 based on Baylor College of Medicine: Herbal remedies are an overlooked global health hazard
American scientists have called herbal medicines a global risk to public health and called for large-scale studies of their effectiveness and toxicity. They published their opinion in the journal EMBO reports (Global hazards of herbal remedies: lessons from Aristolochia).
Donald Marcus, Professor of Medicine and Immunology at Baylor College, and Arthur Grollman, Professor of pharmacology at Stony Brook University, cited recent epidemiological studies that showed carcinogenicity of plants of the genus kirkazon ( Aristolochia). These plants have been used in traditional medicine for several thousand years. In Taiwan alone, from 1997 to 2003, about eight million people took drugs containing them.
At the same time, about five percent of the population is genetically predisposed to the toxic effects of kirkazone – the DNA of their kidney tissue forms complexes with the alkaloid aristolactam, which leads to a mutation in the TP53 gene that suppresses tumor cell degeneration. As a result, patients develop interstitial nephritis (inflammation of the connective tissue of the kidneys), renal failure and malignant neoplasms of the urinary system. In addition, additional studies have established the connection of taking kirkazone with liver cancer.
According to scientists, many traditional herbal medicines cause severe side effects, mainly in Asian and African countries, where they are used especially widely. However, statistics of such cases are not kept, and epidemiological data on them are not available.
The authors emphasize that they do not advocate a "categorical rejection of traditional therapeutic methods", but only urge representatives of world health to systematically study the short-term and long-term toxic effects of herbal preparations, as well as their effectiveness.
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10.05.2016