Echinacea cuts cold incidence, studies find

BOSTON - Use of echinacea, or extract of the purple coneflower, before the onset of full-blown symptoms of the common cold reduces the incidence by more than a half and the duration by almost two full days, researchers reported here at the annual meeting of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology.

There are approximately one billion colds reported annually, Dr Sachin A Shah told meeting attendees. He commented that 20 per cent of patients report using nutraceuticals for symptom management. Of these, echinacea is the most commonly used.

Shah of the University of Connecticut, Storrs and colleagues conducted a search and ultimately a pooled analysis of randomised controlled trials on the subject.

The investigators found 14 studies that contained information on incidence in 1356 patients and duration in 1630 patients.

The team found that echinacea use cut incidence by 58 per cent. Duration was shortened by 1.9 days compared with the colds of nonusers.

- REUTERS