Purple Coneflower

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Purple Coneflower, also known as Echinacea or Black Sampson, is one of the world's most useful medicinal herbs. Research shows that it has the ability to raise the body's immunity against bacterial and viral infections by stimulating the immune system. It is also an antibiotic and helps to relieve allergies. Echinacea angustifolia (Purple Coneflower) was widely used by the North American Plains Indians for its general medicinal qualities. Plants in this genus were probably the most frequently used of all North American Indian herbal remedies. They had a very wide range of applications and many of these uses have been confirmed by modern science. The plant has a general stimulatory effect on the immune system and is widely used in modern herbal treatments.

Echinacea was one of the herbs in the mid 19th century through the early 20th century thatwas documented for treatment of snakebite, anthrax, and for relief of pain. In the 1930s echinacea became popular in both Europe and America as a herbal medicine. According to Wallace Sampson, MD, its modern day use as a treatment for the common cold began when a Swiss herbal supplement maker heard that echinacea was used for cold prevention by Native American tribes who lived in the area of South Dakota. Although Native American tribes didn't use echinacea to prevent the common cold, some Plains tribes did use echinacea to treat some of the symptoms that could be caused by the common cold. They used it for coughs and sore throats, the Cheyenne for sore throats, the Pawnee for headaches, and many tribes used it as an analgesic. This plant was also used by North American Indians as a universal application to treat the bites and stings of all types of insects. An infusion of the plant was also used to treat snakebites.

The roots and the whole plant are considered particularly beneficial in the treatment of sores, wounds, burns etc, and possessing cortisone-like and antibacterial activity. In particular, the root has been promoted as containing a more efficacious mixture of active chemicals. A 2003 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that when echinacea products made from the entire plant were taken after the second cold symptom appeared they provided no measurable beneficial effect for children in treating the severity or duration of symptoms caused by the common cold virus. The study has been criticized for using whole-plant extracts instead of root extracts, and the dosages studied were lower than those recommended by herbalists. A 2005 study in the New England Journal of Medicine focused on several root extracts, but still found no statistically significant effects on duration, intensity, or prevention of symptoms.

All species have chemical compounds called phenols, which are common to many other plants. Both the phenol compounds cichoric acid and caftaric acid are present in E. purpurea, other phenols include echinacoside, which is found in greater levels within E. angustifolia and E. pallida roots than in other species. When making herbal remedies, these phenols can serve as markers for the quantity of raw echinacea in the product. Other chemical constituents that may be important in echinacea health effects include alkylamides and polysaccharides.