Presently, several health institutions, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), have
recently published safety information related to the presence of AAs in plant materials to prevent further cases of intoxication. Interestingly and fortunately, only 2–3% of persons treated with weight-reducing pillscontaining aristolochic acid are known to have suffered from renal injury in Belgium (Arlt et al. 2002). Furthermore, in Germany, aristolochic acid has been used by thousands of patients as an immunomodulatory agent for 25 years without any reports of chronic interstitial nephritis (De Broe 1999).