Echinacea - An Alternative to Synthesized Antibiotics

Antibiotics are one of the greatest gifts of science to mankind since the dawn of the twentieth century. Since their first documented use in the treatment of wounded soldiers for infectious diseases like pneumonia, scarlet fever and tuberculosis, humankind has been dependent on the protection that they offer. However, over time the excessive use of antibiotics has caused the bacterial organisms to develop resistance to various antibiotics and thus significantly reducing their effectiveness.

Plants or plant extracts in some form or the other have been used since ancient times to help treat various viral and bacterial infections. One of the most profusely documented case is the use of the Echinacea herb to combat snake venom and poisonous insect bites. This herb was used primarily by the Native Indians and is nowadays commonly referred to as the purple coneflower. When used with other plant extracts and additives, Echinacea can be used to cure mild flu, colds, bad coughs as well as help keep open wounds from getting infected when applied as a paste made from the leaves and root of the plant. The natives also used the herb along with ginger to cure sore throats and treat throat infections.

The curative properties of the herb made it quite popular in the Americas in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Echinacea's fame spread to Europe where it was widely studies and well regarded as a natural cure for many bacterial infections. With the discovery of antibiotics, namely penicillin, the popularity that Echinacea enjoyed began to decline towards the second half of the twentieth century. However, the Germans still use Echinacea as a viral inhibitor and in some specific cases, for treating inflammation.

The slow, but sure resistance that many bacteria are developing towards standard synthesized antibiotics has paved way for scientists to go beyond the existing solutions and look towards alternative cures. The Lancet, a renowned scientific journal espoused the effectiveness of a concoction derived from extracts of the Echinacea herb. The study demonstrated that this concoction could help reduce the possibility of contracting common flu by well over eighty percent, a claim backed by scientists from over a dozen countries.

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