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... or perhaps not. Some proper research has indicated that echinacea may reduce the incidents of colds and significantly reduces their duration, which also reduces the amount of over-the-counter remedies that sufferers chuck down their necks.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healt ... colds.html

Interesting. The study abstract is here: Safety and Efficacy Profile of Echinacea purpurea to Prevent Common Cold Episodes: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial and the full text is freely available. Looks perfectly reasonable from an initial skim.

Assuming the title of this thread refers back to other recent discussions, are you lumping herbalists in with homeopaths? They are a bit different, you know

I know many people who swear by echinacea to prevent/shorten colds.

Couldn't bear the tea myself. It's so bitter!! I tried the drops in milk...but then was told that that wasn't such a good idea because milk is mucus forming, so it was cancelling out the echinacea.

Zech wrote:Assuming the title of this thread refers back to other recent discussions, are you lumping herbalists in with homeopaths? They are a bit different, you know

I confess to have been being flippant. I think herbalism is a field worthy of serious scientific study to examine the observations and anecdotal evidence many years of practice have generated.

This is a good example - a plant extract appears to do something to inhibit the action of a virus that is notorious for its variability. Given how poor the pharmacopoeia is with respect to anti-virals, someone should be looking at this.

The problem for the pharmaceutical industry, John, is that plant medicine works because the vital ingredients are not standardised. Each batch will be different depending on where it was grown, the prevailing weather conditions (which change from region to region and year on year) etc. The ratio of essential oils etc change and that's why the bugs don't become resistant to them.
For the pharmaceutical industry, if they can't standardise a substance, it's no use. If they try, they build in an automatic resistance at some point. So it's not worth their time or expense.

With respect, Maggie, the reason why these extracts might work could be determined, no matter how complex the mode of operation, provided that enough effort (and money ) were expended. There is nothing supernatural going on here. However, would big pharma be that interested? I suspect there might be all kinds of patent issues involved when dealing with entirely natural products, which might put them off since they are in the game to make money.

They managed to figure out how to make money out of a willow-bark extract didn't they?

gregorach wrote:They managed to figure out how to make money out of a willow-bark extract didn't they?

True, but only once they'd modified the active ingredient in the bark to make it less aggressive to the tum. I think that might have been patented, once. But suppose the buggers unearthed something (at great expense) that needed no modification

Then where would they be??

The Riff-Raff Element wrote:

gregorach wrote:They managed to figure out how to make money out of a willow-bark extract didn't they?

True, but only once they'd modified the active ingredient in the bark to make it less aggressive to the tum. I think that might have been patented, once. But suppose the buggers unearthed something (at great expense) that needed no modification

Then where would they be??

Something like cannabis?

I'm not sure why you'd think it was supernatural John. High altitude lavender contains different proportions of the same ingredients as that grown nearer sea level. Not supernatural, just nature.

Green Aura wrote:I'm not sure why you'd think it was supernatural John. High altitude lavender contains different proportions of the same ingredients as that grown nearer sea level. Not supernatural, just nature.

I don't think it. That's rather the point. Everything that is going on in these extracts - including the variations due to origin, growing conditions and the synergic effects of the varying levels of components - can be determined and potentially exploited, provided enough effort were made.

demi wrote:

The Riff-Raff Element wrote:

gregorach wrote:They managed to figure out how to make money out of a willow-bark extract didn't they?

True, but only once they'd modified the active ingredient in the bark to make it less aggressive to the tum. I think that might have been patented, once. But suppose the buggers unearthed something (at great expense) that needed no modification

Then where would they be??

Something like cannabis?

I don't know if anyone's ever really played with THC to see what they could do with it. I understand that MS sufferers claim a range of benefits from ingesting the stuff, so perhaps someone should.