Echinacea

Botanical Name: Echinacea angustifolia DC. · Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench

Family: Asteraceae (Aster/Daisy family)

Other Names: Purple Coneflower · Coneflower · Black Sampson (E. angustifolia)

Parts Used: E. angustifolia: the root. E. purpurea: the root and the fresh flowering tops.

Quick Look

Echinacea is the prairie coneflower, and two different plants are sold under the name. Narrow-leaved E. angustifolia is the strong root of the Plains tribes and the old American physicians, used for boils, abscesses, bad sore throats, bites and wounds turning septic. E. purpurea is the milder garden coneflower on which most modern cold research has been done. Herbalists do not treat them as equals.

Actions, Energetics & Taste

How It's Been Used

Angustifolia or purpurea? They are not the same medicine. E. angustifolia is the species the Plains tribes used and the one the old American physicians built its reputation on; they found E. purpurea a poor substitute. E. purpurea came into medicine later, through Germany, and is the species behind most modern studies of colds. Think E. angustifolia root when infection is deep or threatens to spread. Think E. purpurea for ordinary colds.

Infection & "bad blood." The old physicians gave E. angustifolia wherever the body was fighting sepsis: boils, carbuncles, abscesses, foul ulcers and blood poisoning.

Mouth & throat. E. angustifolia was used for tonsillitis and ulcerated sore throat, and Plains tribes chewed the root for toothache, coughs and sore throats.

Wounds, burns, bites & stings. A wash of the root was used to dress burns and wounds, and the plant was a noted Plains remedy for snakebite and stings. In Europe, E. purpurea has an official traditional use on small surface wounds.

Swollen glands. A poultice was laid on enlarged glands, as in mumps.

Colds & flu. Both are taken at the first sign of a cold, and for a short time only. In Europe the pressed juice of fresh E. purpurea is officially recognized for short-term prevention and treatment of the common cold, and E. angustifolia root has a traditional use in supporting recovery from one. Research suggests Echinacea may slightly lower the chance of catching a cold; whether it shortens one is still uncertain.

How to Make & Take It

Preparations: Decoction · Tincture · Gargle · Wash · Compress

• Decoction: ½ to 1 teaspoon dried root to a cup of water. Simmer, covered, 15–20 minutes. Drink 1 cup three times a day.
• Tincture: E. angustifolia root, 1:5 in 45% alcohol, ¼ to ½ teaspoon, three times a day. The old American physicians gave 5 to 60 drops, repeated every hour or two in acute illness.
• Fresh juice: The pressed juice of fresh E. purpurea is sold bottled; follow the label.
• Gargle: The cooled decoction, or tincture in a little water, for a sore throat.
• Wash or compress: The cooled decoction, used to bathe a burn or wound or to wet a cloth laid over it.
• How long: Start at the first sign of illness and use it for up to ten days.

Cautions

• Avoid it if you are allergic to the daisy family. Serious allergic reactions have been reported, especially in people with asthma, eczema or other allergies.
• European guidance does not recommend it with autoimmune disease, immune deficiency, immune-suppressing medicine, disorders of the white blood cells, or progressive illnesses such as tuberculosis and multiple sclerosis.
• No drug interactions are reported. The limited data from pregnancy show no harm, but talk with a knowledgeable herbalist or care provider first.
• It can upset the stomach.
• A snakebite, a spreading infection or blood poisoning is an emergency. A cold that worsens or lasts more than ten days needs medical attention.

Know the Plant

Both are perennials of the daisy family, one to three feet tall, with rough, hairy stems. Each flower head has drooping pink-purple rays around a spiny central cone, and they bloom from June to August.

• E. angustifolia has narrow leaves and a woody taproot. It grows on the open, rocky prairies of the Great Plains, from Texas to Montana and Saskatchewan.
• E. purpurea has broader, toothed leaves. It grows in open woods and prairies from northeast Texas, Missouri and Michigan eastward. It is the easy one to grow and the one common in gardens.

Both are sold simply as "Echinacea," so check the botanical name on the label. Wild Echinacea is dwindling from habitat loss and over-harvesting, and a root takes three to four years to reach usable size. United Plant Savers recommends using cultivated plants only.

A Little History

The tribes of the Great Plains, among them the Dakota, Omaha, Pawnee, Ponca, Winnebago, Cheyenne and Kiowa, used E. angustifolia root for toothache, sore throat, burns and snakebite. It entered American medicine through Dr. H. C. F. Meyer of Pawnee City, Nebraska, who had used it since 1870 and in 1886 sent it to Professor John King. The pharmacist John Uri Lloyd dismissed it at first, taking it for E. purpurea, which was thought of little value, until his brother Curtis identified the plant as E. angustifolia. King's American Dispensatory later called it "from start to finish, an Eclectic medicine," and Finley Ellingwood found E. purpurea disappointing beside it. In Germany, Gerhard Madaus made the first commercial European preparation, Echinacin, and it is the pressed juice of E. purpurea that European medicine has studied since.

Elder

Botanical Name: Sambucus nigra L. (European Elder) · Sambucus canadensis L. (American Elder)

Family: Adoxaceae (formerly placed in the Honeysuckle family)

Other Names: Elderberry · Elderflower · Black Elder · Common Elder · Pipe Tree

Parts Used: Flowers and ripe, cooked berries. The bark and leaves were used historically.

Quick Look

Elder gives two medicines from one shrub. The flowers, taken as a hot tea, bring on a sweat and dry up a streaming cold. The cooked berries make the familiar dark syrup taken for colds and flu. Reach for the flower at the first shiver of a cold or fever, and for the berry through cold and flu season.

Actions, Energetics & Taste

How It's Been Used

Colds, flu & fever. The hot flower tea is taken at the first sign of a cold or fever to bring on a sweat, often with peppermint. Relief of the early symptoms of a cold is the flower's official traditional use in Europe. The berry syrup is an old cordial for colds and coughs. In trials, elderberry extract shortened the flu when started within two days, and shortened colds in air travelers by about two days.

Catarrh, sinus & hay fever. The flower is used to dry up a running nose and clear the sinuses.

Children. The flower tea has long been a household remedy for children's colds and fevers.

Flower or berry? Think flower when there is fever, chill or a streaming nose and a sweat is wanted. Think berry as the syrup for coughs, colds and flu.

Skin. Elder flower water was a gentle wash for the skin, and the flowers were beaten into lard or cream as an ointment for burns, scalds and slow sores.

Water & kidneys. Taken cold, the flower tea increases the flow of urine.

Bowels & joints. The thickened berry juice was a gentle laxative and was also taken for rheumatism and sciatica.

Bark & leaves. The inner bark was a strong purgative and the leaves went into a green ointment for bruises and sprains. Neither is taken internally today.

How to Make & Take It

Preparations: Tea · Decoction · Syrup · Tincture

• Flower tea: 1 tablespoon dried flowers to a cup of boiling water. Cover and steep 10 minutes or more. Up to 3 cups a day, taken hot for a cold or fever.
• Berry decoction: 1–2 teaspoons dried berries to a cup of water. Simmer, covered, 15–20 minutes. Take ½ cup three times a day.
• Berry syrup: Made from a strong berry decoction. The trials used 1 tablespoon four times a day for five days.
• Flower tincture: 1:5 in 40% alcohol, ½ to ¾ teaspoon, three times a day.

Cautions

• Never eat the berries raw or unripe, and do not use the leaves, stems, bark or roots. They contain compounds that release cyanide and cause vomiting and diarrhea. Cooking the ripe berries destroys them.
• Safety in pregnancy and nursing has not been established. Talk with a knowledgeable herbalist or care provider before using it.
• It may lower blood sugar, and it may interact with insulin and blood pressure medicine.
• Ask for advice before taking the berry with an autoimmune condition or with immune-suppressing medicine.
• Trouble breathing, a high fever, or a cold that lasts more than a week needs medical attention.

Know the Plant

Elder is a shrub or small tree with pithy stems that hollow out easily and leaves made up of several toothed leaflets. Flat-topped clusters of small, creamy-white, fragrant flowers open in early summer, followed by drooping bunches of purple-black berries.

European Elder is native from Europe to western Iran. American Elder is a native shrub of North America, five to twelve feet tall, and is used in the same ways.

A Little History

The name Elder comes from the Anglo-Saxon aeld, fire, because the hollow stems were used to blow up a fire. Maud Grieve called a strong tea of elder blossoms and peppermint "an almost infallible cure for an attack of influenza in its first stage." The diarist John Evelyn wrote that "if the medicinal properties of its leaves, bark and berries were fully known, I cannot tell what our countryman could ail for which he might not fetch a remedy from every hedge." In America the flowers were listed in the United States Pharmacopoeia.

Elecampane

Botanical Name: Inula helenium L.

Family: Asteraceae (Aster/Daisy family)

Other Names: Scabwort · Horseheal · Wild Sunflower · Velvet Dock

Parts Used: Root

Quick Look

Elecampane is a warming, aromatic, bitter root for the chest. Reach for it for a deep, wet, lingering cough with plenty of phlegm, the kind that hangs on after a cold or settles into chronic bronchitis. It is also a tonic for weak digestion and slow recovery.

Actions, Energetics & Taste

How It's Been Used

Coughs & lungs. Its great use, for centuries: chronic bronchitis, whooping cough, damp asthma and the teasing, persistent cough that brings up a great deal of mucus. It was a favorite household remedy for bronchitis and was long given in consumption.

Children & elders. Herbalists favor it for the irritating bronchial coughs of the young and the old.

Digestion. A warming bitter for weak digestion, poor appetite, gas and bloating, and trouble with fatty foods.

Recovery. A tonic in convalescence and long tiredness, and an old remedy for night sweats.

Worms. Given along with worm-expelling herbs.

Skin. An old remedy for itch and scaly eruptions, and the farm remedy for skin disease in horses and scab in sheep that gave it two of its names.

Nerve pain. Rubbed on the skin, it was used for sciatica and other nerve pain.

How to Make & Take It

Preparations: Decoction · Tea · Tincture · Syrup

• Decoction: 1–2 teaspoons dried root to a cup of water. Simmer, covered, 15–20 minutes. Up to 3 cups a day.
• Cold-steeped tea: 1 teaspoon dried root to a cup of cold water, left overnight. Warm it and drink a cup three times a day.
• Tincture: 1:5 in 25% alcohol, ½ to 1 teaspoon, three times a day.
• Syrup: Simmer 1 ounce of dried root in 2 cups of water until it is reduced by half. Strain, and stir in an equal amount of honey. Take 1 teaspoon up to five times a day.

Cautions

• Avoid it if you are allergic to the daisy family. The plant can cause a skin rash on contact.
• Large doses cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
• Avoid it in pregnancy, because it was used to bring on menstrual flow. Safety while nursing is not established. Talk with a knowledgeable herbalist or care provider first.
• It is drying, so it is a poor fit for a dry, irritated cough.
• No drug interactions are known.
• A syrup made with honey should not be given to babies under one year.
• A cough that lasts more than three weeks, or comes with fever, blood or shortness of breath, needs medical attention.

Know the Plant

Elecampane is a tall, striking perennial, four to six feet high, with a stout, furrowed stem. Its basal leaves are very large, one to three feet long, and velvety underneath. Bright yellow, shaggy flower heads like small sunflowers bloom in summer. The root is thick, branching and aromatic.

It is native from southeastern Europe to western Siberia and Iran, and has naturalized along roadsides and pastures in the northeastern and midwestern United States.

A Little History

The English name is a worn-down form of the old Latin Enula campana. The Romans used the root as both a medicine and a seasoning, and the Roman writer Pliny reported that it was eaten daily to help digestion and "cause mirth." It appears often in Anglo-Saxon medical writings, medieval monks made a cordial of it, and it was candied and eaten as a sweet. Country people called it Horseheal and Scabwort for its use on horses and sheep. King's American Dispensatory (1898) described it as an aromatic stimulant and tonic, and Maud Grieve as a favorite home remedy for bronchitis.