Is there any more well known herbal medicine than Echinacea? I’m not sure how and when exactly it gained such notability, but it’s now ubiquitous in the mainstream as a first defence against the common cold. Beautiful, beautiful Echinacea.
A hearty perennial with glorious blooms that feed the bees in the summer and the birds in the fall. Plus, she provides more medicine than I know what to do with year after year. Hung to dry in the wee little cabin, her blooms look just as beautiful as they do in the garden. The cones are firm, sharp, and hardy, the petals delicate and light.
So what do I do with all those gorgeous flowers? I whisper to them, I laugh with them, I send them my gratitude and shy, humble reverence. I know she’s a star, an enormously popular cold and flu medicine, and I do my best to serve her magic as I carefully prepare these blooms into a powerful immune support tincture. She is probably most effective in tincture form, but can also be taken as a tea.
The root, flower, and seed of this plant are all used for medicine, but the root carries the most potency. If you were to chew on a fresh root, you would notice immediately a tingling, numbing, saliva enhancing effect in your mouth. This is from the alkamides, one of the prominent medicinal constituents of the Echinacea plant, and are also present in the flower heads. This medicine is best used short term, during acute infections. It is safe for children (lower dose), has a stimulating energy, and should be taken at the first sign of sickness, every few hours until symptoms resolve. Also can be used after surgery, injury or infection to help body heal.
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