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Pipe flowers - Cancer danger by medicinal plant
Tumors in the urinary tract
Aristolochic acids in the pip flower promote carcinomas in the bladder, renal pelvis and ureter. This has been known for some time and the use of preparations containing these substances is banned in Germany and heavily controlled in China and Taiwan.
The Osterluzei used historically to initiate the birth and abort fetuses. But researchers warn today: The aristolochic acids contained in such pipefish cause cancer. 500 types
The pipefish is a genus of the Osterluzeigewächse, and around the world there are about 500 different species. In Europe, the common Osterluzei, also known as beaver, wild boar or wolf weed grows.
Widespread
The pipe flower is still widely used in Chinese folk medicine. In Russia, it was used as a remedy for fever, boils and wound healing, in Norway for blood purification, in Italy for rheumatism and in Hungary for menstrual problems.
Problem known?
Chinese doctors have long been aware of the toxicity of the pipefish. Chinese medicine, however, means to have the toxins under control through targeted use.
Traditional obstetrician
In Europe, the Easter bells used in medicine in the Middle Ages to facilitate childbirth. Aristolochia means "the well-nourishing" (aristos means "the best" in Greek, "locky" to bear). It was also a common means of getting an abortion. However, Aristolochia banished its toxicity to the list of banned drugs in Germany in 1981.
Toxic abortion
Aristolochia can actually cause an abortion because of the symptoms of intoxication. Thus the acid leads to the acceleration of the pulse, to the lowering of the blood pressure, to vomiting and convulsions. These spasms also affect the abdomen and thus the uterus.
Old medicinal plant
The ancient Romans and Greeks used Osterluzei against snake bites, and probably American Natives did with local relatives. In the Christian Middle Ages, it was considered a magical plant and was demonized on the one hand, on the other hand, it was and is a part of Mariensträußen. Aristolochia clematitis used to be found regularly in peasant and monastery gardens.
Roots are the venom store
The Osterluzei contains up to 1% aristolochic acid in the roots, in the leaves, however, at most 0.03%.
The Balkan mystery
In the 1950s, a disease was reported that plagued people with kidney failure and carcinomas from Croatia to Romania - the "Balkan necrophilia". Unlike some other diseases of kidneys, blood pressure did not rise. The cause: The affected had processed the growing between the cereals Ordinary Osterluzei (Aristolochia clematitis) in bread.
Kidney failure in Belgium
In 1998, pipe flowers became the headlines. 100 women suffered from kidney failure after accidentally taking a herbal mix of Aristolochia fangchi. Eighteen of those affected got tumors in the upper intestinal tract, and many of them had their kidneys and ureters removed.
Liver cancer: results from three continents
Scientists at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore recently found in an analysis of liver tumors in patients from three continents: The aristolochic acids also cause liver cancer, as reported by Science Translational Medicine, 2017 (doi: 10.1126 / scitranslmed.aan6446)
Unique gene signature
Tumors that are affected by aristolochic acid have a typical gene signature. The team from Singapore has now established this signature using special software for liver carcinoma.
Heaped at traditional Chinese medicine
Most commonly, the researchers found the specific gene signature in Taiwan, where TCM is often practiced. 76 of the 98 liver tumors from Taiwan showed the typical DNA - ie 78%.
Taiwan leader in upper urinary tract cancer
In the 2000s, Taiwan had the highest rate of carcinoma in the upper urinary tract, the uterine carcinoma, worldwide. Between 1997 and 2003, about 30% of people in the region took in aristolochic acid, and the carcinomas were right where they came from: kidney, bladder and ureter.
Frequency decreases with the frequency of use of the pipe flower
In China, aristolochial acid was found in 47% of liver tumors, 19% in Vietnam, and well below 5% in Europe and the US.
Highest mutation rate
Aristolochic acids trigger the highest mutation rate among all known carcinogens, namely 150 mutations at one million base pairs. For example, in the case of skin cancer caused by ultraviolet light, this rate is 111 mutations and lung cancer is 8, according to the scientists at Song Ling Poon of the National Cancer Center in Singapore.
Also lung cancer?
A research group led by Margaret Hoang of the John Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center in Maryland had long ago discovered the gene signature of aristolochic acids in a lung cancer patient.
Can genetic analysis prevent cancer?
The analysis of gene mutations not only shows whether aristolochic acids are involved in an existing cancer, but also gives hope to prevent the onset of cancer in the future by detecting damage before the cancer occurs.
Avoid wrong prevention
Enlightenment would also prevent false prevention. For example, a person who respects his or her health would be tragic, therefore does not drink alcohol, does not smoke, but, as a supposedly "gentle remedy," takes preparations from pipe-flower and suffers from liver cancer or kidney failure.
Total ban demanded
Scientists are now calling for a total ban on the sale and use of medicines and mixtures containing aristolochic acid in China and Taiwan.
Sale over the internet
Even in Europe and the US, products containing aristolochic acid can be obtained via the Internet, often without labeling of the ingredients. Especially pipe flower is found in "healing" herbal mixtures. The scientists therefore demand that the public be informed about such means.
Alternative medicine?
The pipe flowers are still regarded as medicinal plants in the so-called alternative medicine, despite their proven danger and apply, for example, in homeopathy as a medicinal plant, for example, the giant pipe flower in Remedia homeopathy in dilution as C12, C15 or C30 globules available.
Homeopathic dosage unproblematic?
This would only be problematic insofar as these dilutions no longer contained any of the substances which cause cancer - in other words they are generally ineffective because in fact they only consist of water. However, "homeopathic remedies" that extract their pipefish themselves are in danger: it is very easy to find that there is still a clinically effective dose of the carcinogenic substances despite "potency" in the water.
homeopathy
In homeopathy, Aristolochia is not only a medicine for gynecological purposes, but also for the healing of external and internal wounds and for the treatment of ulcers. The page www. globuli.de recommends Aristolochia clematitis Globuli, for example, for "eczema, skin inflammation or itching of the skin", for "patients with pregnancy or menopause", and even "various complaints of the kidneys and urinary tract", ie exactly where aristolochic acid Carcinomas influenced. Homeopathy preferably uses Aristolochia mihomens and Aristolochia serpentaria.
Kidney poison for the kidneys?
Specifically, www.globuli.de recommends aristolochia in homeopathic doses for "purulent cystitis, pyelonephritis and chronic bladder infections." However, in the bladder and renal pelvis Aristolochia promotes documented cancer.
Attractive ornamental plant
Osterluzeigewächse are adornments of any garden with their heart-shaped leaves and their whistle-like flowers (Pipe Flower), which turn out to be sulfur yellow in the common Osterluzei.
Since the wild common Osterluzei in Germany is on the Red List of endangered plants, the care in native gardens is even desirable - to look at.
magic plants
Osterluzei played a significant role in practices related to childbirth and abortion; This is one of the reasons why Esoteric women enjoy the reputation of being a "witch plant", who demonized the church and later the pharmaceutical industry. However, witch myths and reality are two different pairs of shoes. Even if our ancestors used Osterluzei, Tollkirsche or Datura, this does not mean that their poisons are harmless.
No self-attempts
There is nothing wrong with admiring the beauty of Osterluzei in your own garden. However, you should make sure that you keep children away from the flowers and do not use them as a "medicine" in their own experiments. The pipe flower does not belong to peppermint, sage and rosemary in the herb spiral, but to mandrake and hemlock in the poison bed. (Dr. Utz Anhalt)