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A preparation of red echinacea inhibits Covid-19 in cell culture. To speak of a miracle cure would be an exaggeration, even the study authors say.
Echinaforce has been in demand everywhere since Monday.
The message hits like a bomb. 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.” His supplies had already run out by early afternoon. You can find the same at the pharmacy station in Aarau. Many customers would have asked for the preparation in the morning. In Basel, a customer was sent home by his pharmacist at nine in the morning: “Everything is sold out, you are already the fiftieth customer asking.”
What happened? On September 9, the renowned “Virology Journal” published the study report on an in vitro study with Echinacea purpurea, the red coneflower. The study was carried out by the Spiez Laboratory. Efficacy against coronaviruses was observed in the cell experiment. Thurgau manufacturing company A. Vogel AG was surprised by the large amount of attention yesterday morning and said in the afternoon that A.Vogel AG could not comment on the results of drug research studies for legal reasons.
“To what extent the results of the cell experiment can be transferred to humans, we do not yet know.”
The Thurgau-based company writes that new scientific studies should provide an additional basis for evaluation.
The effect on the body remains hypothetical.
Werner Albrich from the St. Gallen Cantonal Hospital Infectious Disease Clinic has been researching the active ingredient in the Echinacea plant for a long time. Talking about a miracle cure is not appropriate. “But with this study there are indications that Echinaforce could work as a prophylaxis,” says the infectologist. To be more precise: the new Spiez Laboratory study shows that the active ingredient inhibits coronaviruses in the test tube. Second, there is clinical evidence from previous studies that colds are reduced if Echinaforce is used preventively. If you use Echinaforce to prevent colds, then you have a certain chance that it will work against Covid-19 as well. “But these are still hypotheses at this time,” says Albrich. “It has helped us a lot if colds and flu are not rampant this winter. This can be achieved on the one hand with measures of distance and hygiene, on the other hand with the usual vaccination against influenza and on the other hand with prevention. Echinaforce can help. ”According to Albrich, a wave of influenza should not coincide with a wave of Covid-19 so as not to overload the healthcare system.
These are the most important questions and answers about the new Echinaforce study.
In the test tube, ie in vitro, experiments were carried out with human tissue from cells of the upper respiratory tract. Echinaforce inactivated all four coronaviruses tested in the tissue. The more common cold virus HCoV-229E, Mers-CoV, Sars-CoV1 and the new Sars-CoV2 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-CoV2, could also be sensitive to the drug Echinaforce and possibly offer affordable and affordable prophylactic treatment for other emerging coronavirus infections.
The effect of Echinaforce on Sars-CoV2 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.
The active ingredient for the preparation comes from red coneflower and, like all plants, it cannot be grown and stored without restrictions. As with all herbal products, there are natural limits to its production. However, there are 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 infectiologist Werner Albrich from the Cantonal Hospital of St. Gallen participated in the Echinaforce study. In a statement yesterday, the Spiez Laboratory stated that the effectiveness of a substance in vitro demonstrated by the laboratory is not proof of the effectiveness of the substance in vivo. In order to make statements in this regard, clinical studies would be necessary.
