Understanding echinacea uses is important with this often controversial herb that has broad use by many herbalists
Here is Chris Marano sitting in a patch of echinacea. He discusses the plant in the video below, and we share information on echinacea uses in both the article and video.
The echinacea pictured is not your typical Echinacea purpurea, but another variety. There are numerous species of echinacea throughout the United States. Some of them are localized to particular habitats or areas that could be as small as one small region of a state.
There are two main echinacea species that we use for medicine. One, Echinacea purpurea, is the magenta-flowered variety found in most gardens. The other, Echinacea angustifolia, typically considered the most medicinally potent species, has white petals and does not grow as easily in this part of the country.
Echinacea is a famous medicine, and even people who don’t know anything about herbs have heard of it. It’s one of the superstars, and has stirred ongoing controversy because of that celebrity status. People on one side of the fence have claimed that it’s an incredible medicine that can be used effectively for virtually any pathogenic infection. Any such a claim made about any medicine should raise a red flag in your mind. There are precious few panaceas in the world, and echinacea is definitely not one of them.
On the other side of the fence people say, “Echinacea’s reputation is completely overblown and actually doesn’t work that well at all. It’s minor medicine and its reputation is completely unmerited.” I know a few herbalists who hold this view. I feel echinacea is not deserving of that criticism either.
Understanding echinacea uses for health
Now let’s get to the plant’s medicine. Echinacea purpurea is a reputable immune-stimulating medicine. It’s not immune strengthening or a deep immune tonic, but it works well on the surface immune, first-response level, stimulating the function of macrophage phagocytes — the scavengers that circulate through blood and lymph in concert with other white blood cells, attempting to corral and engulf anything that might be sickness-inducing, particularly viruses and bacteria. In this sense, echinacea is an immune stimulant.
It’s also even better as a lymphatic remedy. It helps to keep the lymph circulatory system in your body moving. It keeps it thinner. Not in an undernourished, weak way, but by keeping lymph from becoming viscous and slow-moving. Echinacea especially keys in for immune stimulation and preventing illness in the upper respiratory tract, between the chest, through the throat and the neck and the lymph vessels in the neck, and into the sinuses and the head.
One of the best remedies for strep throat is a combination of echinacea and goldenseal. The two of them can often be found in drug stores and health stores combined together because they work in different areas, and so in concert work better than alone for particular issues. Goldenseal is antibacterial and antiseptic to mucous membrane tissue. Echinacea is immune stimulating and lymph moving through similar mucous membrane tissue. They key in strongly for helping inhibit and move strep infection out of the system faster.
People turn to antibiotics for strep throat because there are a couple of strains that can drop down and infect the heart, causing a serious heart condition. Most choose not to risk it and immediately go on antibiotics. Well, this doesn’t mean you can’t use echinacea and goldenseal anyway to resolve the issue. Why not address it from multiple angles? You’ll get over it even faster. Complementary medicine works.
Besides strep, I use echinacea for any kind of upper respiratory illness, including the onset of colds, the onset of flu, the onset of anything that feels off in the sinuses or throat passages, whether it is an illness, a virus, a bacteria, or an allergy. Echinacea, interestingly enough, while it’s stimulating to the surface immune system, it’s modulating and inhibiting to excessive histamine production. Echinacea is a valuable addition to allergy prevention and allergy relief formulas. In this case, I’m referring to environmental allergies, not food allergies. 
Echinacea uses for stimulating the surface immune system
Therefore, echinacea is stimulating to the surface immune macrophage system while being simultaneously modulating to the surface immune mast cell system, which stores and releases histamine (an inflammatory agent) when provoked. That means that echinacea is useful in hyper-immune protocols, and area where it is not often used. I use it in occasionally in autoimmune protocols. Autoimmunity is a condition where the body attacks itself because of persistent, chronic inflammation.
Echinacea, being neutral in its energetics (meaning neither heating nor cooling), makes it makes it useful in helping to dispel or alleviate inflammation on a deeper level. For example, I use it in formulas for relieving the pain of rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune illness afflicting joints that is hot and dry in nature. Echinacea uses are beneficial here because it is neutral, whereas other antiinflammatory herbs that are energetically heating and drying — such as turmeric — may be exacerbating to the condition.
As I mentioned, echinacea is one of the main herbs in my allergy prevention and allergy relief formulas. It’s also a main ingredient in my antiviral and lymph tonic formulas, alongside other herbs like red clover, burdock, violet, spilanthes, and poke root.
Echinacea also is a sialogogue, meaning it has the ability to stimulate the flow of saliva. Echinacea works well for people who suffer from dry mouth. That same stimulating excretory property extends to the digestive system, so you can use echinacea as a carminative to enhance digestion. A far as carminatives go, however, I will always choose a spice instead, since they also add a flavorful component.
This is a brief look at some of the echinacea uses worth knowing. You can also learn about making echinacea tincture here.
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