There are many types of echinacea plants out there making it very difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of echinacea. Some people believe that taking echinacea at the first onset of symptoms of a cold will help relieve symptoms and result is a shorter illness duration. There are others out there that argue that echinacea has no value in treating cold symptoms and is only comparable to placebo. The National Institute of Health says that echinacea is possibly effective for the common cold but that there is little evidence to look at to support this. They also have not done extensive test on echinacea do to the fact that it can come from a variety of sources and each products differs slightly. The FDA does not oversee herbal supplements so there is currently no way to regulate that each echinacea product is of the same potency and comes from a good source. That being said, I mist agree with the NIH and conclude that there is no proven efficacy in the use of echinacea for treatment of the common cold. There are many OTC pharmaceuticals on the market that are proven safe and effective and are cheaper than echinacea that would make a much more valuable treatment option for the common cold that echinacea.
Tyler Hieneman
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/981.html
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