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The renowned Spiez Laboratory has certified that the drug Echinaforce is effective against coronaviruses. Since then, the demand for the drug in pharmacies has not stopped and in many places it is out of stock. However, the available study results do not yet demonstrate any efficacy in humans.
The active ingredient Echinacea, which has an anti-viral effect, is obtained from red echinacea.
No, the pharmaceutical company Thurgau A. Vogel AG has been researching coronaviruses and other cold viruses for five years. The active ingredient in the echinacea plant has also been tested against Sars, Mers, and other respiratory and cold viruses. For current reasons, Sars-CoV-2 has been included in the new study by the Spiez laboratory and the results have been published in the British specialized journal “Virology Journal”.
In the Petri dish, ie in vitro, experiments were carried out with human tissue from cells of the upper respiratory tract. Echinacea inactivated all four coronaviruses examined in the tissue. The more common cold virus HCoV-229E, Mers-CoV, Sars-CoV-1 and the newer Sars-CoV-2 were eliminated. This confirms previous scientific studies that have shown that the active ingredient in red echinacea has an antiviral effect.
Echinacea supplements have different effects due to the thousands of molecules that the active ingredient contains. They have a preventive and healing effect. They act directly against viruses, inhibit virus replication, kill them directly, and prevent viruses from attaching to cells in the respiratory tract. Previous Echinaforce studies show that the active ingredient is also anti-inflammatory while boosting the immune system. Scavenger cells are activated, which can kill viruses and bacteria.
Another effect is that echinacea blocks the attachment of bacteria to cells in the human respiratory tract. Virus infections often lead to bacterial infections. This means that the virus infection damages the cells of the respiratory tract and thus promotes the penetration of bacteria into the cells. This can lead to bacterial superinfection. Echinacea prevents both viral and bacterial infections. In addition, there is no known development of resistance in echinacea, so the active ingredient is also considered a beacon of hope in the fight against antibiotic resistance.
The study shows that echinacea has a preventive effect in the cell culture model. According to the study authors, prophylactic treatment against coronavirus makes sense because the active ingredient has been shown to have a broad spectrum of activity against respiratory viruses that cause severe lung diseases or colds. The study authors write that healthcare workers in particular treating severe CoV infections could benefit from this because it would reduce the transmission and morbidity of highly pathogenic coronaviruses in the general population. Due to their general mode of action, novel zoonotic coronaviruses, such as SARS-CoV-2, could also be sensitive to the drug Echinaforce and possibly offer an affordable and affordable prophylactic treatment for other emerging coronavirus infections.
The effect of Echinaforce on Sars-CoV-2 has only been tested in vitro, not in the body. A certain high concentration of the active ingredient in the Petri dish resulted in the death of 100 percent of the coronaviruses. Now the question arises whether the concentrations necessary for an antiviral effect can also be achieved in the human body. Therefore, the researchers also investigated what happens when viruses are already in cells. “But then the active ingredient was practically ineffective,” says Werner Albrich. An effect can only be achieved with very high doses and only to a small extent. It is not known whether Echinaforce in commercial doses has an effect on the Covid-19 cure.
Echinaforce is obtained from red coneflower. Echinaforce retail products are made from its fresh plant extract and alcohol.
An Oberthurgau pharmacist reported that early customers had reserved their Echinaforce tablets over the phone on Monday morning, shortly after “Blick” reported on a new “miracle cure for Corona.” In the afternoon, their supplies ran out. You can find the same at the train station pharmacy in Aarau. Many customers asked for the preparation, the tablet form quickly sold out. In Basel, a customer was sent home by his pharmacist at nine in the morning: “Everything is sold out, you are already the 50th customer asking.”
The problem: the active ingredient for the preparation comes from red echinacea and, like any other plant, it cannot be grown and stored without restrictions. As with all herbal products, there are natural limits to its production.
However, there are also other manufacturers that produce echinacea products, but not exactly in the same composition as A. Vogel’s Echinaforce, which has now been tested in the laboratory.
The study was carried out at the Spiez Laboratory, the federal institute for protection against nuclear, biological and chemical threats. It belongs to the Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sport (VBS) and is the only laboratory in Switzerland that can also work with highly dangerous pathogens. In Covid’s national working group, Spiez’s lab is involved in questions about diagnostics and protective masks. In addition to the virologists from the Spiez laboratory, two employees of A. Vogel AG and the infectious disease specialist Werner Albrich from the St. Gallen cantonal hospital participated in the Echinaforce study.
