Echinacia
(Echinacea angustifolia, E. pallida, E. purpurea)
Also called: Purple cone flower, Sampson root, Kansas niggerhead, Black sampson.
Source: E. angustifolia and E. pallida
are native to the prairies of midwestern United States, west of Ohio. Over-harvesting
in the wild has led to commercial cultivation of both species. E.
purpurea,
the most commonly used species, is also native to the American Midwest, but
the world supply of this species is cultivated.
Description: Root greyish-brown, twisted.
Echinacea, or purple cone flower, was one of the most important herbs used by Native American healers. According to one 19th-century source it was used as a "remedy for more ailments than any other plant". The herb was treated as a universal antidote to snake bite, the juice was used to bathe burns and pieces of root were chewed for toothache.
By the 1850s echinacea was already widely used by European settlers, largely as an aromatic and carminative for digestive problems. Interest in the plant spread and by the 1930s research in Germany had highlighted its potent antibiotic actions.
Today it is widely cultivated and regarded as one of the
most useful herbs in the repertoire.
The roots of various related species are generally used medicinally, although
preferences vary across Europe: the Germans favour the root of E. pallida
while researchers there suggest that the aerial parts of E. purpurea are
more efficacious than its root.
In the UK , only the roots of both E. purpurea
and E. angustifolia are used, with E pallida rarely found (partly because
it can be harder to cultivate commercially).
Harvesting aerial parts of home-grown specimens makes the herb a more practical
alternative in the herb garden.
Part used: Root, above-ground parts.
Actions: antibiotic, anti-allergenic, anti-inflammatory,
anti-viral and anti-fungal. An immune-stimulant, lymphatic tonic, vulnerary
and is used for a broad spectrum of infections.
Medicinal uses: Stimulating the body's defences against
minor viral and bacterial infections such as colds and flu. Echinacea has
wonderful properties to clear and purify the blood.
It is excellent in all skin eruptions, especially for carbuncles, boils,
bites and stings of poisonous insects, sores and wounds.
As well as treating colds, kidney and urinary infections. echinacea
can also be used for wound healing. and septicaemia.
It is often sold as
a licensed remedy for "minor skin problems", although it is really
more suited to those associated with infection, such as acne, boils and carbuncles,
rather than disorders like eczema which may have a more complex aetiology.
Forms available: Capsules, juice
of fresh flowering plant, tablets, tinctures.
Directions for use:For general use, it is best to take echinacea
in high doses at the first sign of a cold, using 10 ml of a 1:5 tincture
or 3 x 200 mg capsules, three times daily for up to four days.
For prophylactic
use, exponents generally suggest one or two 200 mg capsules daily.
The fluid extract; 30 drops taken in water three times daily.
Attitudes to dosage of echinacea vary, with some authorities suggesting
that it should be taken in short sharp bursts of up to four weeks, while others
happily feed low dosages to school-age children on a long-term basis, successfully
preventing the usual round of childhood ills.
Caution: Persons allergic to other members of the aster
family, such ragweed, may also be allergic to echinacea. Don't use if you
have autoimmune diseases such as tuberculosis, multiple sclerosis or HIV.
Important information: Echinacea is threatened in the wild,
so be sure to buy it from reputable sources. Substitute the more commonly
cultivated E. purpurea for E. angustifolia where possible.
