Echinacea Study Flawed

Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy unsatisfied with findings from the New England Journal of Medicine study on echinacea efficacy

BOULDER, Colo. (August 4, 2005) - Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy, a leading retailer of traditional and complementary health products, finds methodology errors with the recently released study on echinacea (Echinacea angustifolia), as reported in the July 28, 2005 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

According to this most recent study, echinacea was found to be an ineffective treatment of, and preventative for, the common cold.

Don Summerfield, vice president of integrative medicine for Pharmaca, reviewed the study and noted, "Pharmaca places strong faith in science and believes that properly conducted studies are an important way to learn more about many therapies. However, the way this study was designed invalidates its results and improperly raises consumer doubts about an established herbal medicine."

Specifically, major problems with the New England Journal of Medicine study relate to the dosage and quality of echinacea administered to participants.

• The extracts used in this study were made in a university laboratory and do not correlate with commercial-grade echinacea products currently available to consumers. In addition, they were made from a single lot of dried root, a poor selection of raw material to use for clinical research.
• The dosage for each of the extracts in the study was 1.5 mL three times daily, representing 300 mg per dose, or 900 mg per day, of Echinacea angustifolia root. In contrast, the standard dosage for dried Echinacea angustifolia root used at the onset of a cold is well established at 3,000 mg per day or more.