Echinacea
Parts Usually Used
Roots and leaves
Description of Plant(s) and Culture
” Sturdy branching stems 2-5 ft tall with long, dark green leaves and showy daisy-like flowers up to 6-inches across, with drooping rays ranging from white to purplish pink. Flowers in summer. Full sun in zones 3-10. Heat tolerant. It flowers almost all summer and tolerates drought and poor soil. The coneflower is among the most beautiful of native North American plants. Plants from seed will take 2-3 years to flower.
Set out in the spring, spaced 1-1/2 ft apart. Coneflower needs full sun and deep, light loamy soil. It can stand dry conditions and does best with balanced fertilizer during the growing season. It’s a good idea to mark the location of seedlings the first few years, since the plant dies back to the ground in the winter. ). The Purpurea has a rootstock and does not penetrate quite so deeply into the earth.
Purple Coneflower (Echinacea Purpurea) is distinguished from other purple coneflowers by its oval coarsely toothed leaves, flatter (less cone-shaped) disk, and the orange-tipped bristles on the flowerheads. Flowers June-Sept. The leaves and root are used, especially in West German products, as stimulants to the immune system, for the treatment of colds, flu, and other common ailments.
Pale Purple Coneflower (Echinacea Pallida) grows from 2-4 ft tall. The showy purple ray flowers may be 4 in. long. Flowers May-Aug. The range of this purple coneflower is more eastern than that of its close relative (Angustifolia). Narrow-leafed Purple Coneflower (Echinacea Angustifloria), long considered the most important medicinal species of the purple coneflower, E. angustifolia is smaller than E.
pallida; it grows to 20 in. tall. The ray petals are shorter, usually no longer than the width of the cone disk. This species occurs in the western prairies. Hybrids occur where the ranges of E. angustifolia and E. pallida meet.
Where Found
E. angustifolia is found in prairies. Texas, western Oklahoma, western Kansas, Nebraska, west to east Colorado, eastern Montans, North Dakota, Man. and Sask. Canada. E. Pallida is found in the prairies and glades of Arkansas to Wisconsin, Minnesota, eastern Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska. E. Purpurea is found in open woods, thickets; cultivated in gardens. Michigan, Ohio to Louisiana, eastern Texas, Oklahoma.
Medicinal Properties
Alterative, antibacterial, antiviral, analgesic, digestive, tonic, antiseptic, depurative, febrifuge, sialagogue, diaphoretic
Biochemical Information
01% of the dried root of E. 001% of the dried root of E. pallida; ecinolone (appolyacetylene compound from E. angustifolia); echinacoside (a glycoside found in E. 9% protein in air dried roots of E. 3% in E. purpurea; tannin; vitamin C; enzymes; an unidentifieglycoside; resin; acids and thirteen polyacetylene compounds. May also be used as carminitive, stimulant, vulnerary.
Legends, Myths and Stories
, have been found to be effective in strengthening the immune system. It shows promise as a source of potent drugs for use with AIDS and other afflictions. Almost 25% of the drugs we use are based on plants. All three varieties are used in a like manner, however, some consider the E. pallida less active. Plains Indians are said to have used Echinacea for more medicinal purposes than any other plant group (member of the sunflower family).
Science confirms many traditional uses, plus cortisone-like activity; also insecticidal, bactericidal, and immuno-stimulant activities. More than 200 pharmaceutical preparations are made from Echinacea plants in W. Germany, including extracts, salves, and tinctures, used for wounds, herpes sores, canker sores, throat infections (including Strep), preventative for influenza, colds.
A folk remedy for brown recluse spider bites. E. angustifolia is widely used in Europe, although it is not native there. Most commercial W. German preparations utilize extracts of above-ground parts and roots of E. purpurea. Extracts are used to stimulate nonspecific defense mechanisms at infections and chronic inflammations. It has been asserted that the components thought responsible for immune-system stimulating activity were not absorbed by oral ingestion, and could be effective only in an injectable form.
A recent German study, however, showed significant immune-system stimulating activity with orally administered extracts of all three varieties of Echinacea, both in mice and laboratory experiments. Perhaps additional components are involved in immuno-stimulating activity than those previously known. The Native Americans, for instance, had the victim of a snake-bite chew the leaves and roots of the plant.
Swallowing the juice when chewed, the pulp was made into a poultice for the wound area after the cite was lanced with a knife and venom sucked out until blood was flowing. It was thought that so doing the patient would be free of snake-bite symptoms in just 2-3 days. Many studies show that echinacea prevents the formation of an enzyme called hyaluronidase, which destroys a natural barrier between healthy tissue and unwanted pathogenic organisms.
Therefore, echinacea helps the body maintain its line of defense against unwanted invaders, especially viruses. Echinacea is less depleting on the body than golden seal, and so is preferable for more long term usage.
Uses
Herbalists historically employed echinacea with the intention of supporting the immune system and stimulating digestion. In traditional practices, the root was chewed or brewed into tea for complaints such as colds, flu, fevers, toothaches, and flatulence. Folk traditions also utilized preparations of the plant topically and internally for snakebites, spider bites, bee stings, burns, bed sores, boils, acne, eczema, and slow-healing wounds.
Practitioners regarded the herb as a blood purifier and applied it to various skin eruptions and inflammatory states, while Indigenous traditions, including those of the Sioux, historically used the fresh scraped root for snakebites. Additionally, historical accounts noted its experimental inclusion in animal feed for general health complaints.
How Sold
Can be sold as fresh, freeze-dried, or an alcohol extract, liquid, tea, capsule or salve.
Warning
Alcohol tincture may destroy polysaccharides in Echinacea that stimulate the immune system, although other active ingredients remain intact and active. Most tinctures are 20% alcohol in order to preserve the herb, but even 10% ruins the Echinacea. The freeze-dried form is much preferred. Some active ingredients in this herb can be destroyed during processing; freeze drying is the most effective way to preserve the herb’s healing properties.
A fully potent product will create a tingling sensation on the tongue. Important compounds are missed if this sensation is not present. No known side effects have been reported other than with high doses nausea and dizziness may occasionally occur. Persons with anemia or vertigo should avoid using echinacea.
Bibliography
, Loma Linda, CA 92354, Original copyright 1939, revised edition 1994 An Instant Guide to Medicinal Plants , by Pamela Forey and Ruth Lindsay, Crescent Books (January 27, 1992). The Nature Doctor: A Manual of Traditional and Complementary Medicine , by Dr. A. , 27 Pine Street (Box 876) New Canaan, CT. 06840-0876. Copyright Verlag A. Vogel, Teufen (AR) Switzerland 1952, 1991 Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants , by Steven Foster and James A.
, Lotus Press, PO Box 325, Twin Lakes. , Special Sale Catalog, 1996 Prescription for Nutritional Healing, Fifth Edition: A Practical A-to-Z Reference to Drug-Free Remedies Using Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs & Food Supplements , by James F. D. and Phyllis A. , Simon & Schuster/Fireside, Rockefeller Center 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020 The Herb Book , by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY.
copyright 1974. The Yoga of Herbs: An Ayurvedic Guide to Herbal Medicine , by Dr. David Frawley & Dr. Vasant Lad, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin, Second edition, 1988. Indian Herbalogy of North America , by Alma R. , Horticultural Hall, 300 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, 1973