SBU Study: Toxin in Herbal Remedies Linked to Kidney Failure, Cancer

A Stony Brook professor led a study that has linked a toxic component of some traditional herbal remedies to kidney failure and upper urinary tract cancer in those exposed to the toxin, the university announced Wednesday.

Dr. Arthur Grollman, distinguished professor of pharmacological sciences, and a team of international scientists discovered that aristolochic acid, a component of a plant long used in certain herbal remedies, can cause Balkan endemic nephropathy. According to the study, this cause of this disease, which is geographically concentrated in rural areas in the Danube river basin, was long unknown. The study was published in the journal Kidney International.

According to Grollman, the implications of these findings reach beyond those exposed to aristolochic acid in the Balkan region. Aristolochia acid is on the list published in October of human carcinogens, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services National Toxicology Program.

"Millions of people worldwide are at risk for developing diseases due to aristolochic acid exposure from traditional remedies prepared from Aristolochia herbs," Grollman said in a statement. "More broadly, we believe that aristolochic acid nephropathy and urothelial cell carcinoma represent a long-overlooked global disease and an international public health problem of significant magnitude."