WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- What do you get when you buy a bottle of
the herbal cold remedy echinacea? You really don't know what
you're getting, says James Simon, professor of horticulture and
co-director of Purdue's New Crops Center, because of the lack of
consistency in herbs and medicinal plants. Echinacea, for
example, is used by many people to combat cold symptoms. But
according to Simon, there are two different echinacea plants --
Echinacea purpuea and Echinacea angustifolia -- and most product
labels give little information about which plant was used in the
herbal remedy. "Both plants produce the compound that has the
biological activity, but in different amounts," he says.
"Regardless of which species is used in a product, it's the
responsibility of the manufacturers to come up with a mix that
gives consumers the amount of the active ingredient that they
need. But the amount of the active ingredient that is in the
product isn't put on the label." Echinacea is just one of many
examples of the uncertainty