echinacea

echinacea , popular herbal remedy, or botanical, believed to benefit the immune system. It is used especially to alleviate common colds and the flu. Several controlled studies using it as a cold medicine have failed to find any benefit from its use, but a 2007 review of 14 different studies said that echinacea could have modest to marked effects against cold viruses. Echinacea is extracted from the roots and flowering tops of the purple coneflower ( Echinacea angustifolia and E. purpurea ).

coneflower name for several American wildflowers of the family Asteraceae ( aster family). The purple coneflowers (genus Echinacea ), found E of the Rockies, have purple to pinkish petallike rays; some cultivated forms have white flowers. The herb echinacea , derived from the purple coneflower, is taken for colds and other ailments; the plant was used medicinally by Native Americans. Other coneflowers include the yellow coneflowers, or rudbeckias (see black-eyed Susan ), and the praire coneflowers (genus Ratibida ), which have yellow or purplish rays. Many species are grown as garden plants. Coneflowers are classified in the division Magnoliophyta , class Magnoliopsida, order Asterales, family Asteraceae.