Echinacea Is Not Dead!

No sooner do the experts produce a report that echinacea – everybody’s favorite cold cure – doesn’t work, than out comes a study showing that it does! The pundits (and I) have to eat our words. A report in the Lancet Infectious Diseases describes the results of a meta-analysis of 14 clinical trials of the herb, aka the purple coneflower. The incidence of the common cold was reported as the odds ratio compared to people in the studies who were not taking echinacea.

Overall, using the results of the 14 studies, echinacea decreased the odds of developing a cold by 58% and the average duration of a cold by 1½ days. This result is similar to a meta-analysis reported in 2000, but contradicts the most recent large study of experimentally-induced rhinovirus colds, mentioned above.

There are more than 800 US products that contain echinacea. So before it becomes a standard cold treatment, much work needs to be done concerning the best dose, the species of echinacea used, and the quality of its production. Until then, caveat emptor!