Herbal power
Monday, 25 Jun 2007 10:27
Close-up of echinacea purpura flower
Taking the herbal remedy Echinacea could reduce the chances of catching a cold by 58 per cent, a new study claims today.
US researchers from the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy also found that the product can shorten the duration of colds by an average of 1.4 days.
Echinacea is a collection of nine related plant species indigenous to North America and is the most commonly used herbal product.
There are more than 800 products containing echinacea and it is thought that parts of it are able to stimulate the immune system.
The researchers analysed 14 studies into the use of this product to relieve and protect against cold.
Writing in the Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, they argue that if echinacea is used to prevent "natural" catching of cold, it reduced the incidence of colds by 65 per cent. When patients were directly inoculated with the cold-causing rhinovirus, echinacea use reduced cold incidence by 35 per cent.
One study reviewed found that when echinacea was combined with vitamin C, the two reduced cold incidence by 86 per cent. But the researchers say that as this was the only study they reviewed to investigate this, they can not definitely conclude whether the two supplements combined are more effective than echinacea alone.
"An analysis of the current evidence in the literature suggests that echinacea has a benefit in decreasing the incidence and duration of the common cold," the scientists argue.
"However, large-scale randomised prospective studies controlling for variables such as species, quality of preparation and dose of echinacea, method of cold induction and objectivity of study endpoints evaluated are needed before echinacea for the prevention or treatment of the common cold can become standard practice."