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Case report: teenager travelling in China took a nephrotoxic Aristolochia herbal remedy after a commercial chatbot told him it was safe, then had severe nausea

A case series published in the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care in 2026 by an author from the Faculty of Health Sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev describes three cases in which chatbots misled patients or families. In the first, a 16-year-old boy with recurring abdominal pain had a severe episode while travelling in China and consulted a local alternative-medicine practitioner, who prescribed an herbal remedy containing Aristolochia (birthwort) extract. Unsure about the treatment, he asked a popular commercial chatbot, which reassured him that the remedy was safe and harmless. The therapy was stopped after three days because it did not help and he developed severe nausea. After returning home he learned that Aristolochia contains aristolochic acid, a nephrotoxin linked to irreversible kidney damage and cancer and banned in many countries. The report does not name the chatbot, say when this happened or report any kidney testing or lasting effect.

AI system
Unidentified chatbot
Occurred
Event date unknown
Reported
18 June 2026
Event location
China
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Medical Deterioration
Whose AI use
Their own AI use
Setting
Health
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account
3 claims: 1 documented, 2 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: A popular commercial chatbot, not named in the case report, which the patient asked whether a prescribed herbal remedy was safe

What Happened

Source. The case is Case 1 of a three-case series, "'Hallucinations' of artificial intelligence tools misleading patients and families", by a single author from the Faculty of Health Sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, published in the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care (May 2026 issue, online 18 June 2026). The article declares that patient consent was obtained.

What happened. According to the report, a 16-year-old boy with recurring abdominal pain travelled to China during a routine follow-up. While abroad he had a severe episode of abdominal pain and consulted a local alternative-medicine practitioner, who prescribed an herbal remedy containing Aristolochia (birthwort) extract. Unsure about the treatment, he asked a popular commercial chatbot for guidance, and it reassured him that the remedy was safe and harmless.

Consequence. The therapy was stopped after three days because of no improvement and the onset of severe nausea. When he returned home he discovered that Aristolochia contains aristolochic acid, which the report describes as a potent nephrotoxin associated with irreversible kidney damage and acute kidney failure, linked to cancer and banned in many countries.

Limits. The report does not name the chatbot or quote its reply, gives no date, and reports no kidney testing or outcome beyond the nausea. The other two cases in the series (a fabricated surgical centre found on verification, and a child given more than the maximum daily acetaminophen dose for two days without negative effects) report no adverse consequence and are not part of this case.

Reported harm

After a chatbot told him the remedy was safe, a 16-year-old took an Aristolochia-containing herbal remedy for three days and developed severe nausea; the report notes the herb's nephrotoxicity but reports no kidney outcome (clinical case report).

How Harm Occurred

A chatbot asked whether a prescribed herbal remedy was safe told the patient it was safe and harmless, although the remedy contained Aristolochia, a nephrotoxic herb; the patient took it for three days before stopping because of severe nausea, according to the case report.

Outcome

Unknown

The remedy was stopped after three days because of no improvement and severe nausea. The report gives no follow-up on kidney function or any lasting effect, and no response from the chatbot's provider.

What remains unknown

  • Which chatbot was used and its exact reply.
  • When the episode happened; the report gives no date.
  • Whether the patient's kidney function was tested and whether any lasting harm followed.
  • How far the decision to take the remedy rested on the chatbot rather than the practitioner's prescription.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The case report says the patient asked a popular commercial chatbot about the prescribed remedy and that it reassured him the remedy was safe and harmless. The report then describes three days of the remedy, stopped for severe nausea, and presents the case as one where a chatbot misled a patient with false information. The chatbot is not named and its reply is not quoted.

3 claims: 1 documented, 2 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported The case report says a 16-year-old boy with recurring abdominal pain, travelling in China, was prescribed an herbal remedy containing Aristolochia extract by a local alternative-medicine practitioner, asked a popular commercial chatbot about it, and was reassured by the chatbot that it was safe and harmless.

Causal attribution. The author's account of the patient's history; the chatbot's reply is paraphrased, not quoted, and no chat record is shown.

  • pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov(opens in new tab) supports · English
    consulted a local alternative medicine practitioner, who prescribed an herbal remedy containing Aristolochia (birthwort) extract. Unsure about the treatment, the patient asked a popular commercial chatbot for guidance, which reassured him that the remedy was safe and harmless
Documented The report says the therapy was stopped after three days because of no improvement and the onset of severe nausea, and that after returning home the patient discovered that Aristolochia contains the nephrotoxin aristolochic acid.

Causal attribution. Clinical facts as the case report documents them.

  • pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov(opens in new tab) supports · English
    The therapy was stopped after 3 days due to no improvement and the onset of severe nausea. When he returned home, the patient discovered that Aristolochia contains aristolochic acid, a potent nephrotoxin
Reported The author presents the case as one in which a chatbot misled a patient by providing false information.

Causal attribution. The author's attribution of the patient's use of the remedy to the chatbot's reassurance.

Sources

2 sources inspected, from 1 underlying account. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in English on 2026-10-23 as the complete article body through NCBI's PMC efetch service (PMC13387640, XML, HTTP 200); the PMC web page itself returned only a script shell to this host. Applies to s1.

PubMed record read in English on 2026-10-23 through NCBI E-utilities (abstract text, HTTP 200); it is the abstract of the same article. Applies to s2.

Event countries: China. Affected-person countries: Unknown. Court countries: Unknown.

The report says he was travelling in China and consulted the chatbot while abroad, so the event is placed in China. His home country is not stated; the author's institution in Israel is not evidence of it.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-23: Published as a core case: a peer-reviewed case report says a commercial chatbot told a teenager that a prescribed Aristolochia remedy was safe and harmless, and that he took it for three days before stopping because of severe nausea. Clinical facts are documented by the report; the chatbot's causal role is the author's account. Low severity: no kidney outcome is reported.

People described

A 16-year-old boy with recurring abdominal pain, travelling in China at the time (no other identifying details are given in the report)

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

1 AI participant · 0 other people harmed

One patient, Case 1 of the series. The other two cases report no adverse consequence and are not counted here.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#case-report#chatbot#medical-advice#herbal-remedy#false-reassurance

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Case report: teenager travelling in China took a nephrotoxic Aristolochia herbal remedy after a commercial chatbot told him it was safe, then had severe nausea. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-teen-travelling-in-china-took-aristolochia-herbal-remedy-after-chatbot-said-it-was-safe-case-report

BibTeX

@misc{2026_teen_travelling_in_china_took_aristolochia_herbal_remedy_after_chatbot_said_it_was_safe_case_report,
  title = {Case report: teenager travelling in China took a nephrotoxic Aristolochia herbal remedy after a commercial chatbot told him it was safe, then had severe nausea},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-teen-travelling-in-china-took-aristolochia-herbal-remedy-after-chatbot-said-it-was-safe-case-report}
}

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