Energetics:
Pungent, Cool, Dry, Salty

Common Names:
Echinacea, Black sampson, Coneflower, Purple coneflower, Red sunflower, Sampson Root, Snakeroot

Latin Name:
Echinacea purpurea

Family Name:
Asteraceae - Aster / Sunflower family

Functions:
Alterative, analgesic, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, antiviral, detoxifying, diaphoretic, febrifuge, immune stimulant

TCM Functions:

1. Clears heat and dispels toxin, reduces gland swelling
* fire toxin: boils, abscesses, ulcers, swollen glands, swollen throat
2. Releases the exterior, dispels wind-damp-heat, promotes eruptions and benefits the skin
* external wind-heat with sore throat, swollen glands
* eruptive fevers, including measles
* wind-damp-heat in the skin with eruptions, herpes
3. Regulates immunity and reduces allergy
* allergies
4. Promotes tissue repair, clears decay and relieves swelling and pain (topical & internal)
* wounds, ulcers, gangrene, bums, etc.

Therapeutics:
Used for blood poisoning, acne, bee stings, eczema, and tooth ache

Notes:
Echinacea has a reputation for being an immune system tonic, which is perhaps the most inappropriate usage of this herb. Echinacea is stimulating to the immune system, cooling down inflammatory conditions and dispersing the heat of infective bacterial conditions. This parallels the effectiveness of modern antibiotics, which are also energetically cold. Echinacea should be used at the onset of infectious conditions but not as a medicine of long-term tonic usage. The conditions appropriate for extended usage appear when there is systemic toxicosis or tumors that show signs of toxic heat. Echinacea was the most popular herb for infections and inflammations in the materia medica of John King and the Eclectic school of herbal medicine.

Tradition:
Native American healers, Thompsonian, Physio-medical and Naturo-physicians have always maintained that Echinacea is a natural herbal antitoxin.

UpS Alternatives:
Echinacea has been listed by the United Plant Savers as an `at risk’ plant in the wild. Please only use organic cultivated sources. Use cultivated Echinacea as an analog for endangered species Wild Indigo (Baptisia tinctoria). For ingested poisons, poisonous bites, and snakebite, cultivated Echinacea may be substituted for endangered species Virginia Snakeroot (Aristolochia serpentaria).

Contraindications:
Avoid in cases of Allergic Hypersensitivity to plants in the Asteraceae family. Excess may cause throat irritation, nausea, dizziness and excessive salivation.