echinacea monograph its long

[Guest guest]

Echinacea

Echinacea spp

Asteraceae

Purple Cone Flower, Narrow Purple Cone Flower, Pale Cone Flower

Herba seu Flos Echinaceae cum Radice cum Semen

Botanical description and harvesting: Echinacea, or purple coneflower as it

is often called in horticulture, is a wonderful addition to the garden with

its multitude of flowers of a somewhat unique profile. The mature plant

stands from one quarter to one and half meters high when in bloom. The roots

and rhizomes of E. purpurea create a gnarly mass where in other species (E.

angustifolia) send down a deep taproot. The root system is more or less

fibrous (more so in E. purpurea) and has a distinctive design when cut,

similar to the common substitute for Millettia (ji xue teng). There are nine

species, all native the North America, but these are the two that are used

most frequently. Two other species are sometimes used, E. pallida and E.

tennesseensis. The leaves are ovate to lanceolate, with rigid hairs and are

from 7-18cm long. The stems are not woody but very stiff with the

characteristic prickly cone appearance at the top. The flower, more

accurately an inflorescence, has many orange disk flowers in its center and

purple ray flowers that drupe with maturity around the edges. The center of

the inflorescence has stiff spines that form the cone. The seeds are

four-sided, slightly tapering, and concave at the larger end.

The leaves, flower heads, seeds, and roots are used in medicine. The leaves

are generally harvested with the flower heads in mid-summer. The seeds are

gathered in the fall when they are ripe. The root is dug in the fall after

the entire plant has died back. Note that the roots or E. purpurea can be

cut from the crown, leaving at least 5-10cm of root, then the crown can be

replanted. This will reduce your harvest of roots but will save the plant.

Remember it takes at least 2 or 3 years before there is a significant amount

of root to dig. This process is really only a garden method and is not

useful commercially.

Good quality herb should be green to dark green with little stem material.

The flowers should have most of their purple ray flower attached with heads

intact. The seeds should be brown ranging from light to dark and not soft.

The root dries a blackish-grayish color. The sliced root has radiating

lines, which are darker with the remained being grayish. All parts should be

numbing to the mouth and throat upon chewing.

Qi and Flavor: acrid, bitter, cool

Channels entered: lung, liver, stomach

Actions: immunomodulator, antiinflammatory, vulnerary, lymphatic

Functions & Indications: Clears heat and resolves toxins, for any form of

heat/fire and toxicity due to either external pathogens or internal

derangement. This herb is very effective in the beginning stages of a heat

disease (e.g. wei of the Four Levels or tai yang of the Six Stages).

However, Echinacea should not be overlooked in later stages (e.g. ying and

xue of Four Levels or jue yin of Six Stages) this is, perhaps, the most

appropriate time for its use.

Clears heat and transforms phlegm; for phlegm-heat obstructing the lungs

with symptoms of cough and heat effusion with thick yellow or green sputum

that is difficult to expectorate. This herb is also effective when the heat

has been allowed to penetrate the lungs causing abscess and bleeding with

purulent expectoration.

Clears heat and cools the blood for symptoms associated with stings and

bites of any poisonous animal. Also for red papules, macules, boils and

carbuncles due to or associated with blood-heat. Also used for bleeding due

to blood-heat in conditions like red turbidity (urinary) and repletion

hemorrhoids.

Clears heat, drains fire and stops bleeding for patterns where extreme heat

and fire have damaged the network vessels causing bleeding such as repletion

lung fire, heat vomiting and heat strangury.

Clears heat and toxin associated with damp for either damp-heat or damp

toxin with symptoms such as boils, carbuncles, lymphatic swelling, sore

throat, otitis media, sinusitis, strangury, blood in the stool or vomiting

of blood.

Clears heat and dispel wind for conditions such as heat effusion, wind-heat

throat impediment, wind-fire scrofula, wind-heat invading the lung, eczema

and psoriasis.

Commonly used externally for clearing heat and resolving toxins for open

wounds, boils, carbuncles and sores.

Cautions: There is much debate about whether or not this plant is

appropriate for those with autoimmune diseases as it stimulates the immune

system. Some sources say it is contraindicated while other say it is

indicated. I have chosen to not use it in these persons unless I feel that

it is indicated for a specific acute pattern. Because of its acrid flavor

the coolness of this herb does not damage the spleen and can be used safely

by those with spleen qi vacuity, conversely prolonged use of an herb with

its nature could injure the yin and blood humours, therefore caution should

be used in extended therapy.

Dosage and Preparation: 3-9g in decoction up to 30g in acute illness; 2-4ml

in tincture; 1-2ml in fluid extract; 1-3g powdered extract

Note: For maximum effectiveness in severe acute disease this herb should be

taken in moderate to large frequent doses. For lesser acute or more chronic

cases standard dosing is sufficient. During acute infections it is

advantageous to dispense this herb as a simple tincture or other preparation

to be taken hourly, this in addition to the prescribed formula, which the

patient can take at regular interval throughout the day.

Major combinations: Combine with Fringe Tree for shao yang disorders.

Combine with Golden Seal and Usnea for phlegm-heat in the lungs with thick,

yellow, purulent sputum. This combination is also useful for urinary

turbidity due to damp-heat.

Combine with gua lou and zhe bei mu for phlegm-heat coughing with thick

yellow or green sputum.

Combine with ban lan gen and she gan for febrile disease with painful and/or

swollen sore throat due to fire, fire toxin, or phlegm-fire patterns. It can

also be combined with Usnea and California Figwort for the same patterns.

Combine with huang lian and che qian cao ground into a powder, made into a

paste, and applied to external wounds

Combine with Jade Windscreen Formula (yu ping feng san) taken prophylacticly

when there is a threat of illness from family or patients.

Combine with Honeysuckle and Forsythia Powder (yin chao san) to strengthen

its ability to clear heat and resolve toxins.

Commentary: Clinically this plant is critical. Its ability to clear heat for

a variety of heat patterns (wind-heat, damp-heat, etc.) can nearly drug-like

in its swiftness. Because of its strength in clearing heat from a variety of

heat patterns including damp-heat, wind-heat, heat phlegm, heat toxin and

heat bind it is found in a multitude of formulas to clear heat in Western

herbalism. With this in mind we, as Chinese herbalists, can use this herb in

many of our traditional formulas to increase their effectiveness. The two

common formulas listed in the Combinations category are examples of where to

integrate Echinacea, there are many more formulas where it would be

effective.

Although the entire plant including the seeds, are used when prescribing

this herb in bulk formulas I generally use the root. However, when using it

in a preparation I combine all the parts of the plant. Echinacea is one of

the most popular herbs in America. Unfortunately, because of its popularity

many species are in danger in their native habitat. Therefore, we should

only use cultivated species. E. purpurea is easy to cultivate and readily

available in commerce. E. purpurea is a common garden flower, it can be used

as a landscape plant in almost any garden. However, in the proper climate

other species such as E. angustifolia will grow well. For cultivation

purposes E. purpurea is the most desirable since unlike its brothers and

sisters E. angustifolia, E. pallida, etc. it does not have a tap root,

instead holding the earth with thick growth of smaller but more prolific

roots.

Most Native American peoples had several uses in common for at least three

species of Echinacea. They all chewed to plant (primarily the root) or

gargled the tea for sore throat, toothache, and mouth sores. They all

applied a poultice or wash as a local anodyne for burns, septic disease,

wounds, poisonous bites, sores and rheumatic swelling. They all used the

internal medication for poisons or toxins, including swellings, in the body.

The Cheyenne combined the root with puffball mushroom spores and skunk oil

used externally for boils [Hart 1992 p 38{by way of Moerman 1998 p 205}].

The Eclectic physicians of the late 19th and early 20th century favored the

plant heavily. In 1898, Felter and Lloyd say, " Conspicuous among the

remedies introduced within recent years, echinacea undoubtedly takes the

first rank. " Ellingwood states in 1919, " It is the remedy for blood

poisoning, if there is one in the Materia Medica. " In a Physio-Medical

Classic 1897 earlier, Lyle says to use Echinacea for a black tongue as well

as septicemia.

Echinacea is official in many countries including the British Pharmacopeia

(1996), the French Pharmacopeia (1988), the German Commission E Monographs

and, the WHO monographs on selected medicinal plants Volume 1 (1999).

 

 

 

 

Chinese Herbology and Acupuncture

acupuncture and herbal information

 

 

 

" Knowing nothing, you will be aware of everything. "

Lao Tzu