Application in homeopathy
Echinacea – preparations can be bought in the form of tablets, drops and lozenges in pharmacies. The daily dose is 6-9 ml of pressed juice or 250 to 350 mg of dried pressed juice. Ointments in semi-fat form containing 15% pressed juice are used for external application. In addition, a juice can be pressed from the above-ground parts of plants, from which one can prepare a tea. Please note the package insert.
Side effect and interaction
In case of known allergy against composite plants, no preparations from purple coneflower should be taken. Persons with an autoimmune disease or chronic diseases should also not take extracts from coneflower. The same applies to the intake of drugs that lower the immune system.
The medicinal plant coneflower should not be taken for more than two weeks. After a break of one week, treatment can be resumed if it appears to be useful, as stimulation of the immune system is only possible to a limited extent. There are no known side effects of external use of purple coneflower.
When taken internally, allergies (such as skin rash, itching, facial swelling), shortness of breath, drop in blood pressure and dizziness have been observed in individual cases. It is not advisable to use echinacea extracts as injections, as considerable risks are to be expected. In any case, please ask your treating physician!
During pregnancy and lactation, treatment with Echinacea extracts should be avoided, as there is no sufficient scientific study with indications of a fruit damaging effect. Also infants and children should not be treated with coneflower preparations, because the immune system is not yet fully developed. Please ask your pediatrician!
Review
Continuous use of echinacea preparations weakens the body’s own immune defenses. As published in American studies, high concentrations of the medicinal plants St. John’s wort, coneflower and gingko cause damage to the egg cell and thus hinder the reproductive ability. There are always new studies that prove and disprove the effectiveness of purple coneflower. Although the ingredients of the coneflower are known and their biological effects are also known, the significance for the development of a cold, for example, remains unclear. Perhaps an alternative is the preparation Umckaloabo, an extract from the root of the South African Cape Pelargonium?
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