[Double blind study of the influence of aristolochic acid on granulocyte phagocytic activity]

In two double blind studies, separated by a time interval, the influence on phagocytic activity of peripheral granulocytes was investigated by aid of 3H-labelled staphylococci following administration of therapeutic doses of aristolochic acid, a nitrophenanthrene carboxylic acid derivative, to 12 healthy test subjects. Both double blind studies showed that aristolochic acid in a dosage of 0.9 mg/d produced a definite increase in phagocytic activity in healthy test persons after the third day of treatment; this increase reached a maximum within a 10-day treatment period between the seventh and tenth days; following discontinuation of treatment normal values were recorded again within a week. Other laboratory parameters investigated were not influenced.