High-potency Anti-influenza Therapy by a Combination of Echinacea purpurea fresh herb and root tinctures.

ABSTRACT

The medicinal plant Echinacea purpurea (EP) contains potent antiviral and anti-inflammatory activities, which are believed to be responsible for the efficacy of such preparations in the treatment of colds and ‘flu. To determine to what extent the processes of drying, composition and extraction could affect this efficacy, different parts of fresh and dried EP plants herb, root, flower heads and petals, were separately extracted and evaluated for activity against Influenza virus. Maximal activity was obtained from freshly extracted herb, while root extracts showed no such activity. The observed antiviral activity did not correlate with the total dry mass, or the cichoric acid, rutoside, total phenols or alkylamide content. The latter however appears to be responsible for the antiinflammatory effects of the root extracts. Thus, the parallel extraction of antiviral and anti-inflammatory substances from fresh EP herb and root could represent an optimized combination for the treatment of influenza infections.