Echinacea, the popular herbal remedy used for the common cold, does not ward off runny noses, sore throats or headaches, nor does it help speed recovery from cold symptoms, according to the results of a broad clinical trial reported today in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Taken with other recent studies that showed no benefit from echinacea, the new findings shift the burden of proof to proponents of herbal products to demonstrate that the plant has medicinal value, researchers said.
"We find no evidence that it actually does anything to common cold symptoms," said Dr. Ronald B. Turner, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and the study's lead author. "If that's the reason you're buying it, then you're wasting your money."
Echinacea enthusiasts said they did not think the results of the study merited such a sweeping conclusion. They said that Turner and his colleagues used only the root portion of one version of the plant and that the dosage given was too low to register any positive effect.
"This is a good contribution to the clinical literature, but it's not the definitive study on echinacea," said Mark Blumenthal, executive director of the American Botanical Council, a nonprofit group backed by herbal supplement makers. "I just wish it had been a bigger study with bigger dosages."
Echinacea, a member of the same plant family as sunflowers and daisies, was used for hundreds of years by more than a dozen Native American tribes to treat snakebites, toothaches, coughs and other ailments.
Western doctors began recommending it in the 19th century. It became popular in the United States in the 1960s as consumers embraced herbal alternatives to traditional medicine. The World Health Organization recognized echinacea as a treatment for colds in 1999.
Americans spent $153 million on echinacea products last year, making it one of the five best-selling herbs in the country, according to the Nutrition Business Journal, an industry publication in San Diego. It comes in capsules, tablets, tonics, powders, lozenges, tea bags and even gummy vitamins for children. But spending has declined steadily since 2001 as some users have become disillusioned with it, said editor Grant Ferrier.
"With a lot of herbal botanicals, including echinacea, there's not a tangible effect," Ferrier said. "It's not like taking a pill for a headache. A lot of it goes on faith."
