ECHINACEA
Let's talk a minute
about snake oil, the term that means ineffective therapy. Do you wonder
where that comes from? We can trace it back to a particular plant,
the purple cornflower, better known as the source of echinacea. We
have to go back to 1871 when Dr. H.F.C. Myers heard from natives that
extracts of this plant were great for the treatment of the cold, for
the flu, and for snake bites. It turned out it wasn't very good for
snake bites, hence the term snake oil for ineffective therapy. But
it did seem to work against the cold. Until the 1920's it was commonly
sold in North America for that purpose. But then the sulphur drugs
were introduced and these herbal remedies lost some of their favour.
Now they are coming
back, because of the movement today towards so-called "natural therapies".
What do scientists say about this? There have been studies that actually
show improved immune function with echinacea. We're not sure what
the active ingredients are. Chemical analysis shows polysaccharides,
isobutylamine, cichoric acid and echinacoside, all of which have shown
some benefits in test tube experiments. But the real problem is that
in the marketplace there are many versions of echinacea and we're
not really sure what's in them. Even many that are standardized and
say 4% echinacosides, which we think are good drugs, have different
results when we do a chemical assay. Some of them contain a lot more,
some of them contain a lot less. So, you never know whether the product
can be trusted in those kind of terms. Furthermore it is not always
clear that boosting the immune system is beneficial.
People who suffer
from autoimmune diseases, like arthritis, diabetes, and MS, may not
do so well if they take echinacea. But of course, in the treatment
of the common cold it behooves us to try whatever we can. The common
cold is a real scourge and indeed echinacea preparations taken at
the first sign of a cold may indeed be beneficial.
The question is
which one do we take? Some suggest the echinacea alcohol extracts,
the tinctures, may be the best. However, there are some signs of merit
in certain pills. We really don't know. That's why it's so hard to
give advice. What I normally say is echinacea works on some people
some of the time for some conditions.
I know it doesn't
sound very scientific, but that's what it comes down to. When I have
a cold though, I certainly take echinacea, and I think it kind of
shortens the duration of my cold. Although I take it with my homemade
chicken soup.
