What's in Echinacea
Echinacea preparations are widely used herbal medicines for the prevention and treatment of common colds and infections of the respiratory and lower urinary tract1. Echinacea plants contain substances called alkylamides, which have now been shown to play an important role in how Echinacea affects the immune system2. Previous research into the effects of Echinacea extracts has shown the stimulatory effects of alkylamides on macrophages3. Macrophages are the immune system equivalent of ‘the bobbies on the beat’, patrolling the bloodstream looking out for invaders. If and when they find ‘bad guys’, they are capable of ingesting and destroying them, so they’re good cells to have working on your side.
There has been, however, little data collected concerning how the various substances contained in Echinacea are absorbed and metabolised. After all, it doesn’t matter how great they are at helping your immune system to kill invading bugs if they can’t be properly absorbed into your body to do so. So a clinical study was initiated to investigate the availability of Echinacea alkylamides once they were ingested into the body, using a panel of 8 healthy volunteers. The volunteers took either a dose of freshly harvested Echinacea purpurea tincture or tablets made from freshly harvested Echinacea purpurea tincture. Another 2 healthy volunteers took a placebo tincture or tablet, for comparison.
Both Echinacea tincture and tablets contained the same amount of alkylamides, levels of which were measured in blood samples taken over a period of 250 minutes after the dose was taken. The alkylamides from the tincture were present in the blood after 30 minutes, whereas the tablets took 45 minutes to deliver the alkylamides into the bloodstream. The tablets didn’t deliver the same quantity of alkylamides as the tincture, but fortunately the two formulations had similarly beneficial effects on the immune response.
Echinacea tincture Echinacea tablets Time after oral administration (Min) tetraene in ng/ml serum Bioavailability of alkylamides (tetraene) after oral ingestion of Echinacea tincture or tablets4.
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