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Echinacea is often advised for warding off the winter sniffles, says Claudia Hammond, but does it actually work?
If you find yourself about to go down with a cold this winter, the chances are that at some point a friend will suggest you take echinacea. Some swear by it to ward off a cold when they feel the first stirrings of a sore throat. Others take it once a cold is full-blown, in the hope that it will speed their recovery. Native Americans have long valued echinacea for its medical properties, but in the 20th Century its use spread to many countries after it became popular in Germany. In today’s health food shops you can see dozens of different kinds of preparations. The question is, does it work?
Every couple of years a new study is published showing that echinacea either does or doesn’t reduce your risk of contracting a cold. Part of the reason for this mixed picture is that it comes in so many forms. Of the nine different species, all from the daisy family, there are three which are often used medicinally - the pinky-purple echinacea purpurea, the pale purple coneflower and the slightly shorter echinacea angustifolia. To complicate things more, some preparations use the root, others the flower, the leaves or the whole plant and then it can be pressed for its juice, made into a tincture or dried and put into tablets. Different research studies use different preparations, making them hard to compare.
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