Purpuria or Augusti Folia
Called by many the King of Blood Purifiers because it improves lymphatic filtration and drainage. This is the herb that has a great deal of American history attached to it. In the late 1800s, a man named Joseph Mayer was a peddler of goods to the Plains Indians. While trading with the Indians he noted that they made use of the root of a flower (the Cone Flower or Echinacea) that grew on the Plains. The Indians used this root to cure everything from rattlesnake bites to fevers, injuries, and infections. The Indians knew that this root increased the body’s ability to recover, and protected it from poisons.
Mr. Mayer made a tonic of this root by mixing it with alcohol; he bottled this tonic and sold it out of the back of his wagon as a cure for everything. As the story goes: to prove the effectiveness of the tonic he would let live rattlesnakes bite him while on stage, but he never became ill. He became a famous showman and healer selling what became known as snake oil.
Professor King And Echinacea Power
Through Professor King, (one of the leading doctors at the turn of the century); Mayer proved that Echinacea was a powerful healer. Mayer sent a case of the tonic and a plant to the professor to be tested. At this same time, King’s wife was severely ill with cancer, and unknown to King she stopped taking the medicines he had prescribed and began using Mayer’s tonic; after some months she fully recovered and related this information to her husband. With King’s help, Echinacea swept the country and was widely used by doctors for their patients.
Echinacea was only later abandoned when the AMA destroyed herbal medicine in this country and drove the over 20,000 practicing herbal doctors out of business. In the 1970’s this herb swept back onto the market but many of the preparations out there are weak and ineffective.
Testing Good Echinacea – Get Yours Here. Highest Quality!
As an herbal student, I was shown the benchmark for testing good Echinacea, you can use this test against any preparation you will find on the market. You take some of the preparation and put it on your tongue, After about 15 seconds you will find your tongue will get a tingling, numbing sensation (not uncomfortable), that should last about 5 minutes; the stronger the sensation the more powerful the Echinacea. If you do not experience this sensation the preparation is dead and useless, take it back to the store and get your money back.
Group Research
Two groups of researchers recently conducted a review of the scientific literature to determine whether echinacea is safe and effective in preventing or treating the common cold. Both groups of researchers identified 13 high-quality European studies including a variety of different echinacea preparations. Nine looked at the effectiveness of echinacea to treat the common cold and four examined whether it helps prevent this familiar health problem.
Of these 13 studies all but 1 found that echinacea (when taken at the first sign of a cold for 8 to 10 days) reduced cold symptoms or shortened their duration. For example, in a study of 95 people with early symptoms of cold and flu (such as runny nose, scratchy throat, and fever), those who drank 5 to 6 cups of echinacea tea every day for 5 days felt better sooner than those who drank tea without. Other studies have found that echinacea reduces cold symptoms by roughly 34 percent.
Benefits:
Echinacea is an excellent blood cleanser. It works like penicillin in the body without penicillin’s side effects. The use of Echinacea functions especially well in so-called glandular infections and ailments. It is used to treat strep throat and lymph glands. Echinacea cleanses the morbid matter from the stomach.
Echinacea also expels poisons and toxins. This herb activates the body’s defense system against all outside influences and inflammatory conditions. Echinacea has antibiotic, anti-viral, and anti-inflammatory properties. Echinacea blocks the receptor site of the virus on the surface of the cell membranes preventing cell infection.
References:
Little Herb Encyclopedia, by Jack Ritchason; N.D., Woodland Publishing Incorporated, 1995
The Ultimate Healing System, Course Manual, Copyright 1985, Don Lepore
Planetary Herbology, Michael Tierra, C.A., N.D., Lotus Press, 1988
Handbook of Medicinal Herbs, by James A. Duke, Pub. CRP Second Edition 2007
The Complete Medicinal Herbal, by Penelope Ody, Published by Dorling Kindersley