Alcohol tinctures prepared from aged Echinacea roots are typically taken for preventing or treating upper respiratory infections, as they are purported to stimulate immunity in this context. The effects of long-term (> 1 year) dry storage on the capabilities of Echinacea spp. roots from mature individuals to modulate cytokine production are unknown. Using an older human adult model of influenza...

BACKGROUND Aneuploid ermpglasm is an important resource for genetic studies and identification of individual chromosomes in the cells of the aneuploid is an important step. The karyotype has already been established for purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea L.), but due to the high similarity in the morphology of several pairs of chromosomes in this species, it cannot be used to identify indivi...

Echinacea (Asteraceae), a North American genus of 11 recognized taxa (McGregor 1968), is of great economic and scientific interest. Three species, E. angustifolia DC. var. angustifolia, E. pallida (Nutt.) and E. purpurea (L.) Moench, show potential pharmacological activity (Bauer et al. 1988a; Bauer and Wagner 1991). Hydroalcoholic extracts of the roots of these three taxa stimulate phagocytosi...

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of different levels of Echinacea (Echinacea purpurea) methanol extract on the growth performances (final weight (FW), daily growth ratio (DGR), feed conversion rate (FCR), voluntary feed intake (VFI) and protein efficiency ratio (PER) and some of hematological parameters (hemoglobin (Hb), hematocrit (Hct), red blood cell (RBC) and white blo...

Because of the popularity of Echinacea as a dietary supplement, researchers have been actively investigating which Echinacea constituent or groups of constituents are necessary for immune-modulating bioactivities. Our prior studies indicate that alkylamides may play an important role in the inhibition of prostaglandin E2 (PGE(2)) production. High-performance liquid chromatography fractionation,...

The genus Echinacea, Asteraceae, is comprised of nine species, which are perennial herbs indigenous to North America and which have been traditionally used as medicinal plants for centuries. Three Echinacea species, E. angustifolia DC var. angustifolia, E. purpurea (L.) Moench, and E. pallida (Nutt.) Nutt., are currently being traded internationally in the natural products market. Echinacea pro...

Micropropagation of three Echinacea species, E. angustifolia DC., E. pallida Nutt., and E. purpurea Moench., was investigated as a potential means of germplasm preservation of species faced with overcollection in the wild and rapid clonal propagation of elite individuals with unique medicinal or ornamental properties. Very high contamination rates occurred with shoot-tip explants but not with n...