Parts Most Frequently Used: Roots and Rhizomes (said to have more efficacious mixture of active chemicals), Stems, Flowers and Leaves; Flower petals can be used in salads, otherwise not a food plant

Flavors: Mild, Pungent, Salty, Cool and Dry

Caution: No known side effects; considered very safe.

History/Folklore: While best known for helping to fight microbial infections that impact the respiratory system, echinacea is also useful for treating chronic fatigue, genital herpes, rheumatism, and acid indigestion. It has been used to treat tonsillitis, diphtheria, malaria, typhoid, urinary tract infections, vaginal yeast infections, and even attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHA).

Echinacea has been used by American Plains Indians for treating sore throat, headache, and as an analgesic, or aid to reducing pain. They observed elk eating the plants when sick or wounded, and identified the plants as “elk root”.

In 1930 a Swiss herbalist heard that American Indians had said echinacea was good for colds, and began marketing echinacea tinctures in the U.S. and Great Britain as a cure for flus and colds.

American Indians also treated snake bites and a wide variety of infections with echinacea. Word continued to spread throughout Europe, and it quickly became the most popular medicinal native plant from the new world.
Today it is a global multimillion-dollar industry. It is available at most pharmacies and supermarkets in tea, extract, and pill form.

The constituents found in echinacea represent a wide variety and complex blend of immune-enhancing and antimicrobial substances. Some of these compounds have direct antimicrobial properties and others stimulate or modulate differ parts of the immune system, contributing to the herb’s strength in conferring immunity and fighting a wide variety of infections.

Echinacea has been proven to activate the reticulo-endothelial layer (found throughout the body, but especially in the blood, connective tissues, spleen, liver, lungs, bone marrow, and lymph nodes), increasing alpha, beta and gamma globulin (which are forms of antibodies that help fight infection), and increasing the rate of phagocytosis, or the ingestion of bacteria and other unwanted microbes.

Echinacea’s rhizomes are said to have the most efficacious mixture of active compounds found in the plant.