ABSTRACT
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been used extensively in Chinese communities for a very long time, and is generally believed to be safe, because most of the materials used are natural and their safety has been verified through a long history of use. The plants Aristolochia and Asarum were inadvertently used as part of a slimming treatment in the 1990s. The kidney damage due to the intake of excessive aristolochic acid is known as aristolochic acid nephropathy (AAN). Despite the toxicity of Aconitum plants, they have been used as traditional medicines for long periods. In the Chinese Pharmacopeia of 2015, the root tubers of two plant species, Aconitum kusnezoffii and Aconitum carmichaeli, are included. Daturae flos is believed to be the main ingredient of the famous Mafeisan or foamy narcotic powder, which was the first anesthesia invented by the Chinese Medicine doctor Hwa Tuo in the Eastern Han Dynasty.
