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 | Echinacea Other Names: Black Sampson. Coneflower. Niggerhead. Rudbeckia. Brauneria pallida
Botanical Name: Echinacea angustifolia
Family: N.O. Compositae |
Description: |
Named Echinacea by Linnaeus, and Rudbeckia, after Rudbeck, father and son, who were his predecessors at Upsala.
The flowers are a rich purple and the florets are seated round a high cone; seeds, four-sided achenes. Root tapering, cylindrical, entire, slightly spiral, longitudinally furrowed; fracture short, fibrous; bark thin; wood, thick, in alternate porous, yellowish and black transverse wedges, and the rhizome has a circular pith. It has a faint aromatic smell, with a sweetish taste, leaving a tingling sensation in the mouth not unlike Aconitum napellus, but without its lasting numbing effect. |
Habitat: |
| America, west of Ohio, and cultivated in Britain. |
Constituents: |
| Oil and resin both in wood and bark and masses of inulin, inuloid, sucrose, vulose, betaine, two phytosterols and fatty acids, oleic, cerotic, linolic and palmatic. |
Medicinal Usage: |
| Echinacea increases bodily resistance to infection and is used for boils, erysipelas, septicaemia, cancer, syphilis and other impurities of the blood, its action being antiseptic. It has also useful properties as a strong alterative and aphrodisiac. As an injection, the extract has been used for haemorrhoids and a tincture of the fresh root has been found beneficial in diphtheria and putrid fevers. |
Ancient Lore: |
Echinacea angustifolia
CONEFLOWER, PURPLE CONEFLOWER, BLACK SAMPSON, KANSAS SNAKEROOT
Echinacea has been known to increase resistance to infection for centuries. Science has shown that it increases the number of white blood cells that fight infection. Both Native Americans and the early settlers used this plant for protecting wounds from infections, and even to cure snakebites. It is also antiviral and is being studied in California as a possible treatment for AIDS. A native of central and south-western United States but domesticated varieties are widely grown in gardens across the world. It prefers dry open ground. Perennial to l m (3ft.) with coarse hairy stems and sparse lanceolate leaves also with coarse hairs. Terminal flowers have a raised cone of florets with an outer ring of purple-ray florets and appear in late summer. Easily cultivated.
PARTS USED: Roots and rhizome.
ACTIVE INGREDIENTS/ACTIONS: GIycoside, echinacoside; echinacin; polysaccharides; polyacetylenes; essential oil, including humulene; caryophyllene; flavonoids. Antiseptic, antiviral, immune stimulant, alterative.
MEDICINAL USE: To disinfect wounds and encourage healing, especially in boils, carbuncles and septicaemia; useful in upper respiratory tract infections, including influenza, tonsillitis and pharyngitis. Sipped regularly it combats flu infections. As an alterative in skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis. PREPARATIONS: Decoction, tincture, tablets. Dose: 2-10ml dried herb equivalent three times daily. |
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