| Disease | ECHINACEA PREPARATIONS ARE WIDELY USED TO TREAT THE COMMON COLD. TO ASSESS THE EFFICACY OF DRIED, ENCAPSULATED, WHOLE-PLANT ECHINACEA AS EARLY TREATMENT FOR THE COMMON COLD. RANDOMIZED, DOUBLE-BLIND, PLACEBO-CONTROLLED COMMUNITY-BASED TRIAL.
148 REGISTERED STUDENTS WITH COMMON COLDS OF RECENT ONSET. AN ENCAPSULATED MIXTURE OF UNREFINED ECHINACEA PURPUREA HERB (25%) AND E. ANGUSTIFOLIA ROOT (50%) TAKEN IN 1-G DOSES SIX TIMES ON THE FIRST DAY OF ILLNESS AND THREE TIMES ON EACH
SUBSEQUENT DAY OF ILLNESS FOR A MAXIMUM OF 10 DAYS. THE SVEERITY AND DURATION OF SELF-REPORTED SYMPTOMS OF UPPER RESPIRATORY TRACT INFECTION. WERE ASSESSED. NO STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES WERE DETECTED BETWEEN THE ECHINACEA AND PLACEBO
GROUPS FOR ANY OF THE MEASURED OUTCOMES. MEAN COLD DURATION WAS 6.01 DAYS IN BOTH GROUPS, 5.75 DAYS IN THE PLACEBO GROUP, AND 6.27 DAYS IN THE ECHINACEA GROUP. AFTER CONTROLLING FOR SEVERITY AND DURATION OF SYMPTOMS BEFORE STUDY ENTRY,
SEX, DATE OF ENROLLMENT, AND USE OF NONPROTOCOL MEDICATIONS, RESEARCHERS FOUND NO STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT TREATMENT EFFECT. MULTIVARIABLE REGRESSION MODELS ASSESSING SEVERITY SCORES OVER TIME FAILED TO DETECT STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE ECHINACEA AND PLACEBO GROUPS. COMPARED WITH PLACEBO, UNREFINED ECHINACEA PROVIDED NO DETECTABLE BENEFIT OR HARM IN THESE COLLEGE SUTDENTS WHO HAD THE COMMON COLD. |