The husband of a Chinese herbalist told of his wife's shock when she heard a patient had had both kidneys removed after taking Chinese medicine.

Jie Zheng ran the Guo Yao Acupuncture Centre in St James's Street, Kemp Town, until August this year.

She is accused of selling a banned substance after Sandra Stay suffered severe renal failure and had both kidneys removed.

A medical expert confirmed the damage could only have been caused by aristolochic acid, a substance found in some Chinese medicines which was banned in 1999.

Mrs Stay, 59, said she was treated at the Guo Yao Centre but neither Jie Zheng nor her mother, the resident Chinese doctor, Dr Mei Rong Chen, remember her as a patient, a jury heard.

Mrs Zheng's husband, Guo Yao Yu, told Hove Crown Court he did not recognise Mrs Stay.

He said: "Jie told me a hospital in London wanted a patient's notes but she couldn't find them.

"Then when she was visited by the Medicine Control Agency she was very shocked."

He said when his wife was told a herb seized by an officer from the MCA tested positive for aristolochic acid, she was "absolutely devastated".

The jury heard from Hai Zhang, director of Great Wall importers and wholesale distributors of Chinese medicines, where Jie Zheng bought most products, that after aristolochic acid was banned their supplier in China signed a contract promising not to sell them any products containing the substance.

He said: "When they rang to say a replacement for the medicine containing aristolochic acid also contained it I couldn't believe it. I rang all my customers and told them not to sell it."

The court had already heard that Mrs Zheng got a replacement for the medicine directly from a friend in China but when it was seized tests showed it too contained aristolochic acid.

The trial continues.