Kansas Academy of Science. 179 



ECHINACEA: ITS COMBINATION AND USE. 



.1. M. .M< WilAKK. i[. 1). 



TpCHINACEA ANGUSTIFOLIA, DeCandolle, is recognized 

 -i-L/ by three common names, narrow-leafed purple cone 

 flower, purple cone flower, and black sampson. This plant is 

 herbaceous and has a thick, black, pungent root. It sends up 

 annually a stem that may be either slender or stout. This con- 

 dition doubtless is due to its envorinment. These stems are 

 from two to three feet in height and are covered with hair. 

 This plant is not found east of Illinois. We have a plant 

 growing in the eastern states known as Echinacea purpurea, 

 and called by some black sampson. This has produced confu- 

 sion. Its therapeutic value is slight. Echinacea angustifolia 

 is an entirely different plant, found only in prairie states, 

 mostly in the hills of Kansas, where it is indigenous. It is most 

 plentiful in the sand hills of Kansas. The medicinal properties 

 of this plant was first brought to notice in 1885. During the 

 ten years following and up to 1895 it had been prescribed for 

 all manner of diseases. Since 1895 care in the study of the 

 properties of the plant has prevailed and more accurate con- 

 clusions reached as to its medicinal virtues, which as yet have 

 not been fully established. 



V. von Unruh after years of laboratory work has succeeded 

 in giving this drug a scientific place. He says : 



"Echinacea in its physiological action produces a feeling of intoxica- 

 tion, flashes of heat, headache of a dull character, dull muscular pains, 

 subnormal pulse, cold and numb extremities, and an increase in the 

 specific gravity of the urine. These symptoms pass off gradually within 

 several hours, showing that the drug has no continuing toxic nor detri- 

 mental effects. Death from overdoses have never occurred. In therapeu- 

 tic action it directly stimulates the flow of saliva, sweat and urine. It 

 increases glandular activity, thus antagonizing all septic poisons, aids 

 elimination of toxins, and acts as a destructive upon the streptococci, 

 staphylococci and other pyogenic organisms. Echinacea increases the 

 phagocytic power of the leucocytes; that is, the leucocytes are increased 

 in activity. Injection of from 3 to 5 cc. in cases that showed an abund- 

 ance of cocci and pus gave results showing a speedy decrease of cocci and 

 pus cells. Hyperleukocytosis and lucopenia are directly improved by 

 echinacea. The proportion of white to red cells is rendered normal." 



In tests made by myself in septic cases it has never disap- 

 pointed me. I do not hesitate in stating that it is the one 



