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What is it?

The parts used in herbal medicine are the strongly scented, tapering roots. Echinacea, (commonly known as Purple Coneflower), originates in the Prairies of Western America. It is a long lasting herb that grows up to a meter in height.

How has it been used?

Echinacea has a wonderful history starting from the American Plains Indians where it was regarded extremely highly, for example one of its common names was 'Snakeroot' because it was the herb they trusted the most to save them from poisoning from a snakebite.

Echinacea was a universal toothache and gum disease remedy among Native Americans in the areas of the Great Plains; they used it by packing the pulverized root around the affected area.  Plains tribes, such as the Cheyenne, Comanches, Kiowa, and Teton Sioux, all used Echinacea widely for infectious diseases and to promote the healing of wounds. 

Here is a story from contemporary American herbalist Paul Bergner:

~ My scorpion bite

"Once in Arizona, I was bitten by a Centruroides exilicauda scorpion, the only potentially lethal poisonous scorpion in North America. I didn’t know I’d been bitten, but thought I’d been stabbed by a cactus thorn. Soon my arm was numb, an itchy rash crept up my legs up to the knees, and my pulse rate rose to more than 100 beats per minute. I went to bed, but didn’t figure out what had happened until I woke the next morning and my pulse rate was still over 100.

Realizing it was a scorpion bite, I began taking large hourly doses of Echinacea angustifolia —a folk remedy of the Plains Indians for rattlesnake bite. Nothing much happened for the first five hours, but then I fell asleep and woke as if nothing had happened. I have only a small scar from the bite, and a fondness for Native American herbalism to show for it today."

Echinacea was adopted by the Eclectic school of medicine in the mid 1800s (these were regular doctors who used a lot of herbs in their practice) By the 1920s it was their most commonly prescribed medicine.

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Personal experiences

I use a microscope to do a live blood analysis which is especially useful to assess the health of the immune system. People wtih low immune systems have very inactive and dull looking white blood cells. Healthy white blood cells literally glisten and shimmer because of something known as ‘cytoplasmic streaming’

Over many years of using Echinacea and seeing the effects on people and their blood I have developed a deep trust in Echinacea as a potent ally to have in this world with its intense and growing stress to our immunity. Activating the immune system also sees Echinacea playing a key part in many successful cleansing programs.

Echinacea does not work as a tea. You must either use the tincture or chew the root like the Plains Indians did. There is much controversy about what is the best type of Echinacea, I follow the Indians on this one and we use only organic Echinacea angustifolia root imported from the USA.

I have describe how to use Echinacea as a fast acting natural antibiotic in this article on infections

Echinacea combines perfectly with Panax Ginseng for people with depressed immunity, with Licorice root to assist endurance, with Elderberry for viral infections and with Dandelion and Burdock for deep blood cleansing work.

~ Throat infection formula

Small, frequent doses to get fast results with this.
10 drops or ½ a ml (very small child)
20 drops or 1 ml (young child)
40 drops or 2mls (teen, young adults or elderly)
4 mls or 1 tsp (average adult).

Put the herbs in a little bit of water, not too much. If possible gargle the herbs before swallowing. I have not yet had a patient that finished this course before they responded well to it. Many report feeling at least some benefit from the very first dose.

~ Swimmer’s Ear, Glue Ear.

Put a few drops of a good quality Echinacea into the affected ear once or twice a day. All surfers should know this trick, it is very effective. The alcohol content in the tincture helps dry out the mucus and the Echinacea deals to the bugs.

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Excerpt from Felter & Lloyd's Kings Dispensatory from 1898

Strictly speaking, it is practically impossible to classify an agent like echinacea by applying to it one or two words to indicate its virtues. If any single statement were to be made concerning the virtues of echinacea, it would read something like this: "A corrector of the depravation of the body fluids," and even this does not sufficiently cover the ground. Its extraordinary powers are well shown in its power over changes produced in the fluids of the body, whether from internal causes or from external introductions. The changes may be manifested in a disturbed balance of the fluids resulting in such tissue alterations as are exhibited in boils, carbuncles, abscesses, or cellular glandular inflammations. They may be from the introduction of serpent or insect venom, or they may be due to such fearful poisons as give rise to malignant diphtheria, cerebro-spinal meningitis, or puerperal and other forms of septicaemia...the Echinacea article in the Dispensatory continues on for eight full pages..

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What does it do?

Echinacea is a potent tonic for the immune system.

When healthy individuals are given Echinacea and have their blood tested before and during the treatment there are several typical changes that happen.

1) Their neutrophils rapidly increase in the first 24 hours. Neutrophils are white blood cells that are short lived (just a few days) but can be made in great numbers if needed. They are the main arm of the immune system that initially deals with general poisons, bacteria and waste products. 

2) After approximately 48 hours, other kinds of while blood cells known as lymphocytes also increase to a much larger number than they were before (almost double). The lymphocytes are the arm of the immune system that deals with more complex tasks, such as dealing with viruses or making antibodies (kind of like internal antibiotics)

3) A process known as phagocytosis steadily increases over the first 5 days of treatment with Echinacea and then remains at an increased level for as long as the herb is taken. Phagocytosis is the name given to how white blood cells literally swallow up foreign material like debris, toxins and bacteria. The strength of this is what we can see when we look at that 'streaming' effect inside the white blood cells under the microscope.

~ Busting a Myth

It is widely believed that taking Echinacea over long periods causes it to lose its effectiveness. Consequently people are often recommended to take Echinacea for no longer than 10 days before taking a break.

This belief came about from a widely quoted German study that was published in 1989 which showed that the increase in phagocytosis from taking Echinacea started to decline after taking the herb for 5 or 6 days and then slowly dropped back to a plateau by about day 10.

However, simply through an inadequate translation from the German, what was not made clear in the reporting of this study is that the volunteers stopped taking their Echinacea on day 5! In fact what the study showed was that the benefits of Echinacea took a few days to wear off but it was completely misunderstood and misinterpreted. From this small mistake an enduring myth has been born.

Echinacea can certainly be used long term without losing its overall immune enhancing effects. The increase in white blood cell counts does go back to normal levels in healthy subjects ( it remains high in sick people) but it has been proven in subsequent studies that the phagoycytosis (the level of activity of the white blood cells) does not diminish with continued Echinacea use.

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