The Latest on Echinacea

International researchers look more closely at the popular plant

By Steven Foster
January/February 2000
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Echinacea researcher Rudolf Bauer (right) ­questions the way U.S. manufacturers ­standardize echinacea products.
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Don’t take your echinacea for granted—at least that seems to be the message of an international forum held in Kansas City, Missouri, last June. As scientists conduct more research, new uses and standards for echinacea are coming to the forefront, including discussions on the best way to standardize products and echinacea’s success in treating radiation exposure. Here are some highlights from the symposium.

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Standardization Questions

American companies are making a mistake when they standardize echinacea products to a single active chemical component or fraction, said leading echinacea researcher Rudolf Bauer, Ph.D., professor of pharmaceutical biology at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, Germany. According to Bauer, who has researched echinacea chemistry and pharmacology for fifteen years, the quality standard for echinacea preparations in Europe is based on the composition of the entire extract, not on a single chemical compound. Many manufacturers in the United States standardize to total phenolic compounds.

“Measuring the quality of an echinacea preparation based on total phenolic compounds is like judging the quality of an automobile based on its iron content,” Bauer said. Depending on a “standardized” chemical isn’t scientifically meaningful and only serves to confuse consumers, he added. Bauer and other researchers emphasized that no one chemical or chemical group has been found solely responsible for the herb’s ability to stimulate the immune system.

Radiation Protection

Following the Chernobyl disaster in 1984, echinacea became the subject of intensive research in the Ukraine in a search for immunostimulants. Ukrainian researchers have found that echinacea may help the body cope with ­radiation exposure, said Victoriya Poc­hern­y­ayeva from the Department of Clinical Pharmacology at the Ukrainian Medical and Dental Academy.

Echinacea Facts

• A recent poll found that 7 percent of Americans have tried echinacea products, mostly for the treatment of colds and flu.

• Last year more than $300 million was spent on echinacea products.

• Research on all aspects of this plant group, from its basic ­bio­logy and chemistry to clinical studies, are now underway in the United States and Europe.

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