33Q 
Echinacea. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
May,  1921. 
ECHINACEA.* 
In  connection  with  the  foregoing  communication  the  following 
reprinted  editorial  is  of  considerable  interest: 
Intelligent  members  of  the  medical  profession  must  be  well 
aware  that  both  the  Pharmacopeia  of  the  United  States  and  the 
National  Formulary,  now  recognized  by  Federal  and  State  laws  as 
standards  for  drugs  and  their  preparations,  include  many  prod- 
ucts that  can  scarcely  be  justified  as  medicinal  on  the  basis  of 
scientific  considerations.  When  once  a  preparation  has  found  its 
way  into  these  "official"  lists,  it  thereby  gains  the  presumption  of 
some  therapeutic  virtue.  All  too  frequently,  what  it  lacks  in  this 
respect  is  replaced  by  the  potent  promises  of  specious  advertising; 
and  when  the  admitted  product  thus  becomes  recognized,  its  place 
often  is  long  assured  by  some  indefinable  force  of  tradition  and 
reverence  for  supposed  pharmacopoeial  wisdom. 
Among  the  products  included  in  the  National  Formulary  is  the 
fluidextract  of  echinacea.  The  claims'  for  this  drug  as  an  "alterative" 
and  "antisyphilitic"  are  denoted  by  one  of  the  publications  of  the 
American  Medical  Association  as  "extravagant  and  unwarranted," 
with  the  added  statement  that  there  are  no  established  indications 
for  its  use.1  In  1909  a  report  of  the  Council  on  Pharmacy  and  Chem- 
istry of  the  American  Medical  Association  denied  echinacea  a  place 
in  New  and  Nonofncial  Remedies,  with  the  statement  that,  in  view 
of  the  lack  of  any  scientific  scrutiny  of  the  claims  made  for  it,  echi- 
nacea is  deemed  unworthy  of  further  consideration  until  more  reli- 
able evidence  is  presented  in  its  favor.2  Despite  this,  it  is  stated  by 
experts  of  the  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture  that  the  use  of  echi- 
nacea has  become  extensive.  The  fluidextract  and  the  tincture  are 
made  in  enormous  quantities,  and  the  root  enters  into  the  composition 
of  a  large  number  of  patent,  proprietary  and  nonsecret  mixtures. 
Couch  and  Giltner  3  of  the  Bureau  of  Animal  Industry,  who  are  re- 
sponsible for  this  information,  have  collected  details  of  the  claims 
variously  made  for  the  drug.   Echinacea  is  stated  to  be  a  corrective 
*Journ.  of  the  Am.  Med.  Assn.,  1921,  39. 
1  Epitome  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  of  the  United  States  and  the  National 
Formulary,  with  Comments,  Chicago,  American  Medical  Association,  1916, 
p.  80.  ; 
2  Echinacea  Conside' ed  Valueless,  /.  A.  M.  A.,  53;  1836  (Nov.  27),  1909. 
3  Couch,  J.  F.,  and  Giltner,  L.  T. :  An  Experimental  Study  of  Echinacea 
Therapy,  /.  Agric.  Res.,  20:  63  (Oct.  1),  1920. 
