The World's Most Popular Herbal Medicine: Echinacea

It's time right now to harvest fresh Echinacea buds, that’s Echinacea purpurea, aka purple coneflower, macerate (soak) them in your favorite menstruum (I use vodka), and get your Extra Echinacea tincture started. I was fortunate to learn some "million dollar" information a few years ago on a visit to Gaia Herb Farm. It was discovered in a government grant that the early buds of Echinacea are high in a compound that helps to prevent the onset of illness. So I started to tincture those first then add fresh flower petals and leaves in the summer and finally 3-year-old roots in fall. The result is a powerful and effective Extra Echinacea Tincture, available now for purchase.

Echinacea is a native Texas wildflower and the seeds can be scattered in the fall, or very early spring. Have the seeds make contact with the soil, water as necessary and when the plants are established you can use minimal water. These plants are hardy, drought tolerant and quite beautiful. The leaves can also be used as a fresh plant poultice to minimize pain and inflammation. I made an Echinacea leaf, comfrey leaf poultice along with my own Black Salve to help with an inflamed spider bite. Within two days, the inflammation was gone and I felt so much better.

The whole plant tincture is used to help prevent illness and taken at the onset of a cold or flu, it will assist in reducing the number of symptoms and hasten your recuperation. I frequently take the tincture for a week before traveling to lessen the risk of attracting a contagious bacteria on a crowded plane, or while visiting an unfamiliar vacation location. I also ingest it frequently before visiting with my grandchildren when they are sick.

Echinacea will aid in boosting your immune system, as well as acting to increase the body’s resistance to infection. It is an anti-inflammatory, an alterative (blood purifier), and can be used an astringent.

Purple coneflower is a tall, stately and valuable plant to include in your medicinal herb garden. The pink blossoms will bloom in summer, and at the onset of fall, the energy of the plant travels down to its roots. This is the best time to dig up and harvest these roots to add to your tincture.

Echinacea purpurea is listed as an “At-Risk” plant by The United Plant Savers. This important plant has been over-harvested from the wild and it is not as readily available and plentiful as it once was. This alone, is a good reason to get viable seeds from a friend who has grown the plant and cultivate it yourself. It is important to put these “At-Risk” plants into our gardens for our own harvest, or to buy only organically cultivated herbs when purchasing Echinacea for tincture or tea.

When thinking about what to plant in your garden, why not choose Echinacea, as it is beautiful, easy to grow, medicinally beneficial and a native to our state. Echinacea grows easily in most parts of the country as well. So when you think of EZ Herbs, think of easy Echinacea.