Birth of a plant

Aristolochia's place in pharmacopeias worldwide

By Julia C. Mead

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1 Practitioners in India, Japan, and Sudan use Aristolochia plants, too. The United States and a few other countries now ban the import of those supplements, but seeds, roots, and supplements are available over the Internet. Every single part of the plant - the leaves, roots, seeds, and stalks - and every Aristolochia species is poisonous.

References
1. K.M. Wu et al., "Complexities of the herbal nomenclature system in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM): Lessons learned from the misuse of Aristolochia-related species and the importance of the pharmaceutical name during botanical drug product development," Phytomedicine, 14:273-9, 2007.

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