What is echinacea and is it safe?!

What is echinacea and is it safe?

Echinacea is probably the most commonly used herb in the West. When U.S. herbalists are interviewed to gather "entries" for the "Top 25 Herbs", echinacea is close to the top of every list.


Unlike many of the popular herbs in use today, which are Chinese or Ayurvedic in origin, echinacea is homegrown. The plant is the purple coneflower, a popular garden flower that’s especially common in gardens in the Northwest and Midwest. Three species are commonly used- Echinacea purpurea, Echinacea angustifolia and Echinacea pallida. It was used by Native American Indians to treat a wide assortment of infections and inflammations. And it enjoyed extraordinary popularity in North America in the early 1900s, dispensed by pharmacies as a tincture, but by the 1930s echinacea had fallen from favor. Meanwhile, echinacea use continued to thrive in Europe, particularly in Germany, where medical doctors frequently prescribe echinacea.

Echinacea is known as a potent immune enhancing herb. The healing part of echinacea is the root. It can be used for acute illness, chronic infection and inflammation and wound healing. It is an excellent general enhancer of healing. It is extremely popular for staving off colds and flu.

Studies of echinacea have revealed a battery of different immune payoffs. Echinacea is definitely shown to significantly increase phagocytosis, the process by which phagocytes are created. Echinacea also increases white blood cell count - the total number of cells as well as the vigorousness of their activity - and production of interferon and tumor necrosis factor. It also acts directly against bacteria by inhibiting the enzyme that helps them get into our healthy cells, and slows bacterial growth. Echinacea root stimulates macrophages, and can work well in the first stages of treatment to kill yeast.

Echinacea has one of the best safety records of any herb, with no cases of toxicity or side effects reported over several hundred years of use. Allergic reactions have been reported, but are extremely rare and usually mild.

Echinacea was used by Native Americans as a long-term remedy for centuries. Based on echinacea’s historical uses, supported by more recent scientific information, it seems appropriate to use echinacea to prevent illness and to increase the dose to further support the immune system when necessary.

Studies
In 1999, a German experiment again demonstrated the positive effect of a combination formula containing echinacea. A total of 263 patients with an acute common cold participated in a randomised, double blind, placebo controlled, multicenter study on the treatment of the common cold (acute viral respiratory tract infection). They took the herbal preparation three times a day for 7 to 9 days. Patients documented the daily intensity of 18 cold symptoms, as well as the cold overall, using a 10-point scale, and also estimated their general well-being. Those with at least moderate symptom intensity showed responses of 55.3% in the herbal remedy group, compared to only 27.3% in the placebo group. Those patients who started therapy at an early phase of their cold experienced the most prominent efficacy of the herbal remedy. According to this study, the herbal remedy is effective and safe and provides rapid onset of improvement of cold symptoms. If patients with colds are able to start the application of the herbal remedy as soon as practical after the occurrence of the initial symptoms, the benefit would be expected to increase, according to the researchers.

Echinacea is very popular with health practitioners and the public, but scientific evidence continues to be ambiguous. On the whole, though, the results appear positive. A recent scientific article puts the evidence in perspective. A 2000 study in Pharmacotherapy evaluated the existing scientific literature on echinacea. Twelve clinical studies published from 1961-1997 concluded that echinacea was efficacious for treating the common cold. And out of five trials published since 1997, three concluded that it was effective in reducing the frequency, duration and severity of common cold symptoms. According to the article, echinacea appears to be safe. The authors state that "patients without contraindications to it may not be dissuaded from using an appropriate preparation to treat the common cold."

Another recent study, out of Sweden, published in late 1999, shows Echinacea to counteract the immuno-suppressant effect of exercise in triatheletes, to effectively reduce cold symptoms by 34% and to produce a 13-35% reduction in "complaint index".