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The active ingredient in red echinacea is often used against colds. Whether it can prevent Sars-CoV-2 infection in humans remains open, despite encouraging laboratory testing.
This is how red echinacea blooms in summer.
If the Sars-CoV-2 viruses and other pathogenic relatives such as the Mers and Sars-1 viruses are bathed in an Echinacea extract, they can no longer infect human cells later. Researchers at the Spiez Laboratory have demonstrated this in several cell culture experiments. That sounds great. The remedy is obtained from the leaves and roots of echinacea, and a product called Echinaforce can be purchased without a prescription at pharmacies. But before we all get addicted to echinacea and celebrate the sun hat as a crown killer, you should also read the rest of the scientific publication in the “Virology Journal.”
In experiments, the agent was able to inactivate coronaviruses before coming into contact with cells. But it could hardly do anything against cells infected by the virus. Furthermore, the conditions in cell culture cannot be transferred one by one to those of the organism. Studies have repeatedly shown that a large number of substances in cell culture have an effect, for example, against viruses, including Sars-CoV-2, or against tumor cells; they still fail to treat patients. The recently acclaimed antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine also showed promising activity against Sars-CoV-2 in cell culture, but later had little to no effect in humans. At this time, therefore, it is unclear whether taking echinacea drops or tablets will help with Covid 19 disease.
To prevent a Sars-CoV-2 infection, according to the current state of knowledge, sufficient echinacea active ingredients should always be available outside the cells in the nasopharynx to immediately intercept any incoming Sars-CoV-2 viruses. That is not entirely impossible. Previous clinical studies have shown that people who take echinacea products preventively get slightly fewer or at least milder colds, including those caused by known coronaviruses. The Spiez researchers emphasize that the effect of Echinacea products against Sars-CoV-2 must now be proven in clinical studies.
Nobody knows what ingredients in the plant work.
Prolonged, preventive use of echinacea products would at least appear not to be harmful. Because these have been taken by many people for years, especially in the fall and winter, as a remedy for colds. A certain antiviral effect of echinacea has long been known: North American Indians discovered the healing power of the plant and also used it.
The Echinaforce product is available in pharmacies without a prescription.
But despite years of research, no one currently knows what ingredients in the plant actually work and how they do it. The experiments at Spiez, as well as previous experiments, suggest that various ingredients interact with the corona layer and other viruses, destroy them or at least transform them in such a way that the viruses can no longer penetrate cells.
Echinacea products have also been shown to relieve cold symptoms. Because they prevent the production of proteins, called cytokines, which warm up the immune system and cause the destruction of tissues contaminated with viruses. If there are fewer cytokines, there is less cough and sore throat and the nose does not run continuously.
