Echinacea - The uncommon herbal remedy for the common cold?

Herbal remedies and cold treatment

The leading British journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases' recent study has put Echinacea under spotlights again.

The team of US scientists, led by Dr Craig Coleman from the University of California has analyzed the results of fourteen different studies and come to the conclusion that Echinacea and common cold do repel each other.

"An analysis of the current evidence in the literature suggests Echinacea has a benefit in decreasing the incidence and duration of the common cold", - they say. But they do stress that this does not make Echinacea a miracle remedy for the common cold to be recommended immediately to all sneezers complaining from runny noses "the possible risks of a treatment by Echinacea need further research.

Echinacea (eck-i-NAY-sha) is an herb widely spread in North America, especially in the Midwest of the United States. Its curing properties were well-known to the Native Americans. Their "medicine-men" have used Echinacea in various herbal remedies to cure snakebite, infection and rabies. In the 1800's it was one of the basic antimicrobial herbs of Eclectic medicine. Later, in the 1930s, the herb, with its nine species and beautiful flowers, has widely been used in Europe and America and is reputed to boost the immune system and fight infection.

There are nine known types of Echinacea, or purple cornflower. In various times, various parts of the plant "the root, the stems, the leaves, etc. - have been used, and under various forms--dried herbs, alcohol tinctures, etc. Echinacea is available now as tea, extracts, tinctures and capsules.

However; the alleged healing powers of Echinacea have not been unanimously approved - different studies have shown different results, ranging from no effect to good results - never the miracle herbal remedy.

Now the latest, The Lancet's, suggests that Echinacea can reduce the risk of a cold by 58 per cent. This conclusion is based on the analysis of 14 existing studies on the herb.

The findings also suggest that Echinacea can help after the cold is caught - according to the researchers, the average length of colds was shortened by at least one and a half days with Echinacea.

As Echinacea itself has had a controversial welcome over time, so are the reactions to this new study.

Some experts are reluctant to its findings arguing that the methodologies used in some of the fourteen studies were suspect. This makes them doubt the objectiveness of the result.

Others say that so many Echinacea-based herbal products are available on the counter that it is difficult to know whether the results of the study apply to the products on the shelves in stores.

Another comment made was that the study published by the Lacet showed that the risk of a cold was reduced by 86 per cent when the herbal remedy was combined with vitamin C. But, as Coleman himself said, would the combination of Echinacea with other herbal products be more effective than Echinacea alone?

And last, but not least - the side-effects of Echinacea were not examined. In some cases, Echinacea had been reported to cause stomach upsets, and rashes. According to other studies, Echinacea should not be used by persons who have tuberculosis, leicosis, connective tissue disorders, other auto-immune and progressive disorders, collagenosis and related diseases.

Coleman himself says that the trials of the previous studies were not large enough to detect the benefits of Echinacea. He thinks that the benefits of the herbal remedy emerged only when he and his colleagues compiled data from all fourteen studies.

One thing is clear, as Coleman says - Echinacea is worthy of further attention. "At the least it should be brought back to the table as a potential drug that could be studied to prevent the common cold", he said.

Maybe we could start by memorizing it's name-- eck-i-NAY-sha...