A woman who turned to Chinese herbal medicine to cure her skin disorder suffered complete kidney failure, a court heard.

Sandra Stay, 59, began taking a cocktail of pills, allegedly prescribed to her by female herbalist Zie Zheng in 1998, to treat her psoriasis after conventional medicine failed to help.

But after taking the drugs for three years, the catering manager fell ill and her doctor then referred her to a specialist, a jury was told.

Tests showed Mrs Stay was suffering acute kidney failure caused by the banned drug Aristolochia - found in many of the pills she allegedly bought from The Guo Wao Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture Centre.

She now needs regular dialysis for her kidney problems.

Mrs Stay told Hove Crown Court she went to the centre in Brighton with her daughter and was given three bottles of tablets and a tub of cream, each costing about £7.50 a pot.

She said: "There was cream, shiny pills, 15 in the morning, 15 in the evening, some brown rough ones, one-and-a-half lids full in the morning and evening, white glossy pills, one in the morning and one in the evening. I had to pay a lot of money.

"They were sold to me by a young lady - she was very nice. I went regularly because it seemed to be effective.

"I never liked taking pills, which is ridiculous because of the amount I have to take now. I took these because they were herbal."

Mrs Stay told the court she was fit and healthy until the final months of 2000, when she begun to feel tired and unwell.

The jury heard Mrs Stay went to her GP in March, who later referred her to a consultant at the Royal East Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

By August she was having regular kidney dialysis after being diagnosed as suffering acute renal failure.

Earlier in the trial, Peter Gower, prosecuting, told the court Aristolochia had been banned in 1999 after the plant and its extracts were found to cause kidney disease.

He said: "It's the Crown's case that Sandra Stay developed acute renal failure and this failure was due to Chinese herbal medicine."

Zie Zheng, 37, of St James's Street, Brighton, denies four charges of selling a medicinal product containing a prohibited substance between October, 1999 and February, 2001, charges brought by the Department of Health.

The trial continues.