Birthwort

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Birthwort (or Birthworts or Dutchman's Pipe vine) is a common name given to plants in the genus Aristolochia. It is notable for causing cancer and kidney failure, and for its use in traditional Chinese medicine.

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[edit] History

Birthwort has been used for thousands of years in various cultures around the world as a panacea for numerous diseases. Birthwort was especially thought to be beneficial for women giving childbirth; the name aristolochia means "noble birth". According to the book A Modern Herbal (note that no mention is made of any possible side effects),[1]

Said to be useful as an aromatic stimulant in rheumatism and gout and for removing obstructions, etc., after childbirth. Dose, 1/2 to 1 drachm of the powdered root.

---Other Species---
Aristolochia cymbifera from Brazil and Mexico is said to have medicinal properties similar to the official species. Butte affirms it is a depressant to the sensory nerve centres and is useful in neuralgia and pruritis; it was formerly considered alexiteric, antiparalytic, antiperiodic and aphrodisiac.

A. argentina root is used in that republic as a diuretic and diaphoretic, especially for rheumatism.

A. indica is used as an emmenagogue, antiarthritic, stomachic, purgative and vermifuge, and in the East Indies is used for similar purposes as the American and European species.

A. sempervirens is said to be used by the Arabians as a remedy against the poisonous effects of snake-bite.

A. foetida in Mexico is used as a stimulant to foul ulcers.

A. serpentaria used in bilious, typhoid and typhus fevers, smallpox, pneumonia, amenorrhoea and fevers of a septicaemic type. It is often given in combination with Peruvian Bark [i.e., Cinchona spp.], rendering it more active and preventing ill effects on the stomach. It is also used in North America, as are several other varieties of the species, as an alexiteric and for the bites of mad dogs.

Birthwort is still being used by some traditional medicine practitioners despite there being absolutely no evidence it actually works for anything. One indication of birthwort in traditional Chinese medicine is for eczema.[2][3]

[edit] Discovery of toxicity

As a result of scientific research conducted in the 20th century, it was discovered that birthwort can cause cancer and kidney failure because it contains aristolochic acid, which is, in the amounts present in birthwort, a poison.[4] Aristolochic acid is one of the most potent carcinogens in the Carcinogenic Potency Database.[3][5] Because of birthwort's use in traditional Chinese medicine, it is estimated that about a third of Taiwan's herbal medicine prescriptions contain aristolochic acid, and Birthwort is considered to be a significant cause of kidney failure and upper urinary tract cancer in Taiwan.[4] In Belgium, a weight-loss spa using TCM herbs gave its clients herbal supplements containing birthwort, and as a result, more than 100 out of 1800 of its patients developed kidney failure, and several also developed urothelial and kidney cancers.[6]

European birthwort (A. clematitis), which was also used as a medicine, has been linked to Balkan endemic nephropathy[wp] (BEN), though this conclusion has taken decades to arrive at since BEN was first diagnosed.[7][8]

The true number of cases of aristolochic acid nephropathy (usually fatal) is unknown and is probably underestimated.[9]

[edit] Butterflies love it, birds hate it

Many species of Aristolochia are food for the larvae (caterpillars) of species of swallowtail butterflies (family Papilionidae). It has been demonstrated that the aristolochic acid is sequestered in the caterpillars, and retained in the adult butterflies, making them unpalatable to most predators (mainly birds).[10][11]

[edit] Footnotes

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