Echinacea Research:

Anecdotal Evidences?

Native Americans were well aware of the medicinal efficacy of echinacea at least for hundreds of years. They used the herb for a variety of illnesses and wounds. Once echinacea was introduced to Europe, especially to Germany, it was immediately recognized for its immune boosting and wound healing properties. Numerous anecdotal evidences exist on the healing power of echinacea even today.

Scientific Research

Ironically, almost all scientific studies on echinacea, the strictly American herb, was conducted in Germany, not in the US. At least three hundred research papers on echinacea have been published mostly by German scientists. While some of them could successfully demonstrate the efficacy of echinacea, most of the studies are plagued with several problems: 1. Most of the studies are in vitro tests or animal studies, rather than clinical trials. 2. Further, many of the articles are case studies, rather than controlled clinical trials. 3. Many studies employed injection of echinacea extracts, rather than oral administration, which would lead to a totally different outcome. 4. Only parts of echinacea rather than the whole plant were used. 5. In many cases, echinacea was tested in combination with other herbs, and the echinacea used for the experiments were adulterated with other echinacea species with less medicinal efficacy.

Clinical Trials

A number of clinical trials have been performed on various echinacea species and parts prepared as juice, ethanol extracts, or by infusion, and in many cases, echinacea has shown positive results (i.e. better than placebo group). There have been very few clinical tests on echinacea or any herb for women at pregnancy, and they should take precaution largely due to the lack of data and our ignorance.

Outlook

Currently, echinacea is one of the most popular herbs in the US market place and in Europe. Preparations made from various plants and parts of the genus Echinacea constituted the top-selling herbal medicine in health food stores in the US since 1995, with an estimated 9.6% of the total health-food dollars spent on herbs, according to a survey of about two hundred independent stored in 1996 [Herbal Medicine - Expanded Commission E monographs, by Mark Blumenthal, Alicia Goldberg, and Josef Brinckmann, first edition, 2000]. As the expenditures of households and the society on health care in general and herbal medicine in particular are steadily on the rise, more echinacea products are likely to be produced and consumed. We are urgently in need of more scientific and clinical research data on herbs as well as echinacea for better and more informed utilization of these valuable resources.

Echinacea Research Links

Echinacea, an immune booster

Phytomedicine 2002 Jul;9(5):390-7 - Immunological studies of Revitonil, a phytopharmaceutical containing Echinacea purpurea and Glycyrrhiza glabra root extract.

J Immunother 2002 Sep-Oct;25(5):413-20 - Oral administration of freshly expressed juice of echinacea purpurea herbs fail to stimulate the nonspecific immune response in healthy young men: results of a double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study.

J Nutr Biochem 2002 Aug;13(8):487 - Echinacea stimulates macrophage function in the lung and spleen of normal rats.

J Pharm Biomed Anal 2002 Aug 1;29(6):1053-60 - GC-MS analysis of the lipophilic principles of Echinacea purpurea and evaluation of cucumber mosaic cucumovirus infection.

Equine Vet J 2002 May;34(3):222-7 - Immunological and haematinic consequences of feeding a standardised Echinacea (Echinacea angustifolia) extract to healthy horses.

Curr Infect Dis Rep 2002 Jun;4(3):206-210 - Advances in the Diagnosis and Management of Influenza.

Altern Med Rev 2002 Apr;7(2):138-49 - Immunological activity of larch arabinogalactan and Echinacea: a preliminary, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

Phytother Res 2002 Mar;16(2):138-42 - Polysaccharides isolated from Echinacea purpurea herba cell cultures to counteract undesired effects of chemotherapy--a pilot study.

J Food Prot 2002 Mar;65(3):528-33 - Inhibition, resistance development, and increased antibiotic and antimicrobial resistance caused by nutraceuticals.