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A large trial carried out at the Cardiff Common Cold Centre and reported in Evidence Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine suggests that taking echinacea over a period of four months reduced the length and severity of colds and their frequency. The trial involved 775 healthy subjects randomly assigned to receive echinacea purpurea or placebo and then to report on any adverse effects and, if/when they did get a cold, to collect nasal secretions for analysis. The authors report that the placebo group had 188 cold episodes, lasting 850 episode days, compared to the Echinacea group which had a total of 149 episodes, lasting 672 episode days and that significantly more people in the placebo group used other medications to control their cold. For an in depth report on the trial see NHS Choices: Echinacea cold study claims analysed
More research on herbal medicine First Published November 2012
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