Aristolochia species

The family Aristolochiaceae is a family of herbaceous plants often used in Asia and the Pacific to counteract snake poisoning, promote urination and menses, mitigate stomachache, and treat dropsy and skin diseases. During the past 20 years, members of this family, especially from the genus Aristolochia have attracted much interest and has been the subject of numerous chemical and pharmacological studies. The anti-inflammatory property of Aristolochia species is probably the result of a direct... 

Aristolochia species (Aristolochiaceae), stores the constituents of the host plant (Aristolochia clematis), aristolochic acid I (143 see Section in body... 

In the UK, the long-term (2 and 6 years) use of Aristolochia species in Chinese herbal mixtures, taken as an oral medication or herbal tea, resnlted in Chinese-herb nephropathy with end-stage renal insnfficiency (1). In reaction to these reports, the erstwhile Medicines Control Agency banned all Aristolochia species for medicinal use in the UK. 

Numerous reports from many countries have confirmed that plants from the Aristolochia species are the cause of the nephropathy (12,13), and the toxic agent has been confirmed to be aristolochic acid (14). 

Areca catechu (areca, betel) Aristolochia species (Dutchman s pipe)... 

Common name Latin name (genus or species) Dutchman s pipe Aristolochia species... 

Actually, the replacement of Stephania by Aristolochia species was confirmed using different batches of powders delivered in Belgium under the name of Stephania tetrandra. Most of these batches did not contain tetrandrine but aristolochic acids (0.65 + 0.56... 

Possible risk factors for the development of aristolochic acid-induced toxicity remain speculative. Over 1,700 patients were exposed to aristolochic acid in the Belgian weight loss clinic, yet only 100 patients with nephropathy have been identified. Furthermore, why is this type of nephropathy not prevalent in China and other Eastern cultures, where use of Aristolochia species is commonplace Possible explanations may include differences in dose and duration of use, since batch-to-batch variability in the composition of herbs in the weight loss regimen was evident. The concurrent use of other medications may also contribute. Many individuals receiving the herbal regimen... 

Table 1. Traditional/folklore medicinal uses of Aristolochia species...

Over the last seventy years over sixty species of Aristolochia have been exploited for chemical examination by research groups throughout the world and a variety of compounds have been isolated. The spectrum of physiologically-active metabolites from Aristolochia species covers 14 major groups based on structure aristolochic acid derivatives, aporphines, amides, benzylisoquinolines, isoquinolones, chlorophylls, terpenoids, lignans, biphenyl ethers, flavonoids, tetralones, benzenoids, steroids, and miscellaneous. The aristolochic acid derivatives, host of phenanthrene derived metabolites were further classified into aristolochic acids, sodium salts of aristolochic acids, aristolochic acid alkyl esters, sesqui- and diterpenoid esters of aristolochic acids, aristolactams, denitroaristolochic acids, and aristolactones. The terpenoids can further be subdivided into 4 groups mono-, sesqui-, di- and tetraterpenoids. 

Table 3. Aristolochic Acids Isolated from Aristolochia Species...

It is interesting to note that Formosan Aristolochia species including A. cucurbitifolia, A. foveolata, A. heterophylla, A. kaempferi and A. zollingeriana are the only species [159,228,244-246] from which sodium salts of aristolochic acids were isolated. However, very recently Lopes and co workers have also isolated sodium aristolochate I (21), II (18), Ilia (19) and IVa (22) from Brazilian species, A. pubescens [208], Isolates of this class from various Aristolochia species were listed in Table 4. 

Table 5 summarizes the occurrence of fourteen alkyl esters of aristolochic acids in Aristolochia species. It is noted that all the reported aristolochic acid alkyl esters are methyl esters except 32 which is an ethyl ester of aristolochic acid la with an ethoxy group at C-8 [129]. Compounds 25-31 are methyl esters of reported aristolochic acids whereas compounds 33-38 are methyl esters of non reported aristolochic acids. Among alkyl esters of aristolochic acids reported so far aristolochic acid I methylester (28) and aristolochic acid IV methylester (30) are frequently encountered in Aristolochia species. Formosan Aristolochia species are known to be rich source for alkyl esters of aristolochic acids, particularly A. zollingeriana [171,223] and A. cucurbitifolia [56,159]. 

Table 6 shows the eleven sesquiterpene esters of aristolochic acids isolated from Aristolochia species. Isolation of the aristoloterpenate I (40) from the radix of A. mollissima is the first report of such compounds in... 

The twelve denitroaristolochic acids isolated from Aristolochia species are presented in Table 7 and endemic Formosan Aristolochia species, A. cucurbitifolia was noted for profuse production of denitroaristolochic acids [56,159,254], Research work by our group revealed that majority of... 

Sixteen protoberberine type alkaloids reported from Aristolochia species were listed in the table 11. Occurrence of this type alkaloids were rare in Aristolochia, they were found only in four species, A. arcuata... 

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