Title : Echinacea Student Contributor Leila Plummer
link : Echinacea Student Contributor Leila Plummer
Echinacea Student Contributor Leila Plummer
PLANT MONOGRAPH ON ECHINACEA PURPUREA
Leila Plummer
Wildflower School of Botanical Medicine 2013
Echinacea purpurea
(Following are common names for Echinacea sp.: Echincacea, Purple Coneflower, Comb Flower, Black Sampson, Missouri Snakeroot, Kansas Snakeroot, Indian Head, Cock Up Hat, Droops, Hedgehog, Red Sunflower, Scurvy Root, Rattlesnake Weed).
Energetics: a wet, cooling, spicy and sweet plant (from Wildflower personal proving), which moves downward and inward (Proving).
Primary actions: Lymph mover, Blood purifier, Immune modulator
Notable indications: start of cold (common knowledge), inability to get well (Proving), snakebite (Bergner ix, Hobbs 5), old injuries (old spider bite, etc) (common knowledge), back pain (especially relating to dehydrated discs) (Proving), inability to move forward (Proving), toothache (Hobbs), sore throat (Hobbs), lymph congestion (DW), digestive issues (Hobbs 8), skin conditions (Dandelion Revolution).
Emotions associated: Joy
Historical Use:
This plant is native to the Americas, especially to territory currently contained in the United States, and is known to be used historically and contemporarily by Plains Indians (Hobbs 5, conversations with other herbalists), for both medical and sacred uses. Lewis and Clark shipped Echinacea to the East Coast from the Great Plains c. 1804 (Kindscher), and outsiders first took note in of the plant in 1870, after German physician Meyer began selling an herbal formula containing Echinacea as “Meyer’s Blood Purifier” (Hobbs 7), and famously offered in 1887 to prove its efficacy by letting a snake bite him prior to taking the formula to resolve the bite’s poisons (Bergner ix). By 1907 it was the most popular herb among physicians (Hobbs 9).
***
Apologizes to this marvelous herb, but I resisted him at first. This showy plant has his portrait on the cover of so many journals and magazines, and has so many studies (over 300, according to Christopher Hobbs) (3) testing his properties. Nearly anyone who has ever taken an herb, even for something as silly as a cold, has taken Echinacea, and even folk who don’t believe in herbs at least know it is meant to have something to do with the immune system. It appeared to me to be the Justin Bieber of herbs – flashy, over-adored, popular, and without much substance -- which was enough for me to already dislike him.
Christopher Hobbs says that “echinacea’s amazing action was eventually explained with the discovery of the immune system, because the herb strengthens the body’s ability to resist infection and poisoning” (3).
The name Echinacea was given by a botanist in 1794, and is a modification of the Greek word “echinos” which means sea-urchin or hedgehog. Hobbs says that this is because of the plant’s “sea urchin-like cone” (7); however I will go further and say that this origin and especially the strange-sounding “Echinacea” variation also call to mind an other-worldly and perhaps powerful creature. This also relates to images found during the Proving. There is something of the sea (wet, like this herb), and of other unknown worlds (warm, like this herb), in this plant.
Echinacea does in fact effect the immune system, and “strengthens the body’s own antibiotic and antiviral activity” (Bergner x). It increases phagocytes (Hobbs 8). Paul Bergner says that the Eclectics saw “’bad blood’ as the most important underlying condition that called for Echinacea” (37), and herbalist DW says that “Echinacea is first and foremost for the lymphatic system (interview).” Michael Tierra notes that it also indibits the enzyme hyalurinadase (which bacteria secrete to form pus and break cell walls) (191). [I also had arranged to meet with a second herbalist but unfortunately at the last minute she was not able to provide the interview.]
Echinacea purpurea is our bioregional Echinacea, and is the one many local people have planted in their gardens. Horizon Herbs notes on its website that cultivation of purpurea in the garden “takes the strain off” of wild angustifolia. Outsiders do not record Native people using this species for snakebite, but at least two local herbalists have assured me that it is just as good as angustifolia for this purpose – although I have yet to talk to anyone who has actually used this species for this indication (herbalists I know that have actually used Echinacea to treat snakebite have all used angustifolia).
Through discussions with local herbalists, and my own Provings, I have come to the conclusion that there are many things about Echinacea which ought not to be publicly shared; therefore much info encountered on this remarkable herb will not be posted here. For now I think it is enough to say I honor this medicine.
References:
Personal and Group Provings at Wildflower School of Botanical Medicine, 2013.
Bergner, Paul. The Healing Power of Echinacea & Goldenseal and Other Immune System
Herbs. Rocklin: Prima, 1997.
DW. Personal interview. 5 May 2013.
“Echinacea purpurea, packet of 200 seeds, organic.” Horizon Herbs.
“https://www.horizonherbs.com/product.asp?specific=449” 8 May 2013.
Hobbs, Christopher. Echinacea: The Immune Herb. Santa Cruz: Botanica P, 1990.
DW, Interview.
Kindscher, Kelly. “Lewis & Clark’s Influence on Echinacea.” United Plant Savers
Journal of Medicinal Plant Conservation. Spring 2013: 14.
Linneman, Celia. “Alteratives and Lymphatics for Cleansing.” Dandelion Revolution.
“http://dandelionrevolution.com/blog/tag/echinacea” 8 May 2013.
Shore Simms, Trina. Telephone interview. ** May 2013.
Tierra, Michael. Planetary Herbology. Twi
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