http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/10/031020055155.htm
Source: University Of California Berkeley
Date:
2003-10-20
Dangerous Herbal Readily Available Through Web Despite FDA Import Ban
A Chinese herbal product known to cause kidney failure and cancer in people
and banned for importation two years ago by the U.S. Food & Drug
Administration (FDA) is readily available through the Internet, pointing out
the need for FDA policies regulating the sale of dangerous herbals through
the Web, according to University of California, Berkeley researcher Lois
Swirsky Gold.
In a letter in today's issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, Gold,
who directs the Carcinogenic Potency Project at UC Berkeley and Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory, reports that herbal products containing
aristolochic acid can be easily purchased through the Internet, despite 105
documented cases of rapid kidney failure due to use in a Belgian clinic in
1993 of a diet supplement containing the herbal extract. Half of the 39
women who had their kidneys removed after taking the supplement were found
to have cancer of the urinary tract, the letter notes. Kidney failure
associated with aristolochic acid has been seen in eight other countries and
urothelial cancer in two other countries, Gold said.
Many names are used for such products, including fang ji (Aristolochia
fangchi) and wild ginger (Asarum canadense). The herbal products, which
include those marketed as "Cramp Relief," "Cold Away," "Mother Earth's Cough
Syrup," "Old Indian Herbal Syrup" and "PMS-Ease," are recommended on the Web
for gastrointestinal symptoms, weight loss, cough, immune stimulation and
menstrual cramps, among others. A list of products is at
http://potency.berkeley.edu.
[...]