HERB - Echinacea question (was bug bites)

Walter J. Wakefield wjwakefield at juno.com
Wed Apr 26 22:00:55 PDT 2000


As an asthmatic myself, I have done research on asthma for many years.  I
have not run across any suggestion that asthmatics should avoid
echinacea.  I would like to follow up on this if you can tell me where
you ran across this.  I take echinacea capsules myself when I have a cold
or seasonally when the pollens are the worst (and here in Dallas, that
can be very bad), and I have never had a bad reaction to it that I know
of.  

Also, applying it topically (as in the insect bite lotion) would be
significantly different than ingesting it in terms of possibly
precipitating an asthma attack.  I am not familiar with any indication
that echinacea penetrates the skin to any significant degree, so I would
think it should be safe, unless one had a bad dermal reaction to it.  

The echinacea preparation that is most commonly used is the ground root,
and other than inhaling the dust from a broken capsule, the root is not
usually the part of the plant that causes allergic reactions.  Echinacea
is a member of the compositae family, and is related to such plants as
black-eyed Susans, sunflowers, daisies, asters, chamomile, and goldenrod,
among others.  Allergies to any of the other pollens might indicate a
cross allergy to echinacea pollen, but again, the flower is not often
used in medicinal preparations.

My opinion would be that the echinacea would likely be safe.  However,
allergies and asthma are quite individual, and one should always be
cautious.  (Have I waffled enough yet?? <grin>)

Suzanna, the herbalist, Barony of the Steppes, Kingdom of Ansteorra
(Dallas, TX)

On Wed, 26 Apr 2000 15:37:03 PDT "Betty Braaksma" <ebeatrix at hotmail.com>
writes:

>One of my shire-mates has a question about the bug-bite remedy, which I
am 
>passing along, since I can't answer it:  I've heard that asthmatics
should not ingest echinacea - does anyone know about applying it to the
skin??
>thanks for any info you can pass along,
>>Berengaria of Outremer


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