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Aristolochia clematitis



Aristolochia clematitis

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Piperales
Family: Aristolochiaceae
Genus: Aristolochia
Species: A. clematitis
Binomial name
Aristolochia clematitis
L.

Aristolochia clematitis, (European) Birthwort, is a herbaceous plant in the Aristolochiaceae family, which is native to Europe. The leaves are heart shaped and the flowers are pale yellow and tubular in form.

It was formerly used as a medicinal plant (though poisonous) and is now occasionally found established outside of its native range as a relic of cultivation. A recent study suggests that it is the cause for thousands of kidney failures in Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Croatia where the plant is unintentionally consumed through flour. This has been discovered after a clinic for obesity in Belgium used Aristolochiaceae as a diuretic, after a few months some of the subjects suffered from kidney carcinoma and kidney failure.

See also

  • Balkan nephropathy
 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Aristolochia_clematitis". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.
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