{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-23T05:54:37.098Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"herbal-remedy","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"","evidence":"","year":"","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":1,"coverage":{"cases":1,"countries":1,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":0,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":1,"lawsuits":0,"regulatory":0,"minors":1,"coreRelations":1,"contextualRelations":0,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":0,"relationPending":0,"relationUnknown":0},"countingNote":"Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.","affectedCountNote":"Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.","source":"AI incidents","publisher":"NOPE","url":"https://nope.net/incidents","license":"CC BY 4.0"},"incidents":[{"id":"2026-teen-travelling-in-china-took-aristolochia-herbal-remedy-after-chatbot-said-it-was-safe-case-report","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"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","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"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."},{"id":"c2","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"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","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"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."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"This report presents three cases where patients and families were misled by LLM chatbots","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"This study highlights three cases where these tools misled patients and families by providing false information, which could cause harm","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"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."}],"effects":[{"label":"took a nephrotoxic herbal remedy for three days and developed severe nausea","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13387640/","kind":"peer_reviewed_case_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"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.","independence_group":"jfmpc-2026-weizman-case-series"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42483378/","kind":"peer_reviewed_case_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"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.","independence_group":"jfmpc-2026-weizman-case-series"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["health"],"unknowns":["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."],"geography":{"basis":"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.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":["CN"],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"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.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-23"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"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.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"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","summary":"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.","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"unknown","exposurePattern":"single_interaction","reportedDate":"2026-06-18","aiSystem":"A popular commercial chatbot, not named in the case report, which the patient asked whether a prescribed herbal remedy was safe","aiProduct":"Unidentified chatbot","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["medical_deterioration"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"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).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One patient, Case 1 of the series. The other two cases report no adverse consequence and are not counted here.","victimAgeRange":"minor","platformType":"chatbot","outcomeType":"media_coverage","outcomeStatus":"unknown","primarySourceUrl":"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13387640/","primarySourceLabel":"J Family Med Prim Care (PMC), 18 Jun 2026: “Hallucinations” of artificial intelligence tools misleading patients and families","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-23T03:07:21.717712+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-23T03:07:21.717712+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["case-report","chatbot","medical-advice","herbal-remedy","minor","false-reassurance"]}]}