Abstract
Available data suggest that humans have used medicinal herbs for relief of pain and various diseases since the late Paleolithic era. Although since then, about 60,000 years have passed, many communities all over the world continue to depend upon medicinal herbs for their pharmaceutical supplies because of poverty or difficulties in accessing contemporary medicines. According to the World Health Organization it is estimated that 75-80% of the World population continues using traditional medicines especially in undeveloped countries and Asian countries. On the other hand, westernized communities exhibit an increased tendency toward using natural products and medicinal herbs like food supplements or medicines. Most of these derivatives lack any authorized surveillance and pose the hazard of toxicity upon Public Health. A characteristic pattern of this insidious hazard is the use of Aristolochia herbs for various ailments since Antiquity and only in the late 20th century became evident that this herb produces nephrotoxicity and carcinogenicity for the upper urinary tract epithelium. Recent advances in molecular biology have confirmed the genotoxic mechanisms of aristolochic acid and its long – term retention in human tissues, highlighting the need for global surveillance of herbal medicine safety and stronger regulation of botanical products. In this short paper we try to elucidate the long journey of our knowledge in unraveling the discovery of Aristolochia’ s toxicity from Antiquity to present days.
Keywords: aristolochia, aristolochic acid, nephrotoxicity, carcinogenicity