My dear friend and guardian angel Keyawis Kaplan calls echinacea “the big E for emergency.” And so it is.

Echinacea builds white blood cells rapidly, effectively countering a wide range of bacterial infections such as mastitis, UTIs, staph, strep, blood poisoning, sinusitis, bronchitis, tooth and gum infections, chronic and acute sore throat, and surgical as well as accidental wounds. Combined with burdock, I have known echinacea to clear genital herpes, a viral infection. In general, however, echinacea is not much help against viral infections. This brings up the question of echinacea’s usefulness in dealing with the viruses that cause colds and the flu. In my experience, since both colds and the flu are often accompanied—or immediately followed by—bacterial infections in the sinuses, throat, and lungs, echinacea can be a helpful ally to counter them. I do use it at the very first sign of a cold or the flu, along with immune-boosting herbs such as Astragalus cooked up in a soup. When I use echinacea tincture, I use a lavish dose: 1 drop for every 2 pounds of body weight. A dropperful (which looks like half a dropperful) is about 25 drops of tincture. So I use a dropperful for children 25-50 pounds. Two dropperfuls for those weighing 50-100 pounds. Three dropperfuls for up to 150 pounds. Four for up to 200, and so on. I take the full dose as often as every 1-2 hours in a crisis, or every 3-4 hours if I catch the infection at an early stage. And I expect to see relief within the first 24 hours. As I do, I space the doses further and further apart until all symptoms are gone. I don’t count the days or the weeks that I use echinacea. If the infection warrants it—as when my goose “Sweetheart” was attacked by a toothed being (dog? coyote? fox?) and had his armpit ripped out—I will use large doses for months on end until all signs of infection (redness, pain and tenderness, heat or fever) are gone. As is always the case, I never use echinacea in capsules. In my experience, dried herbs in capsules are the least effective physically, the most expensive financially, and the most dangerous way to take herbs: plenty of reasons to avoid them. If you have concerns about alcohol, put your dose into hot liquid to dispel the alcohol, or brew the dried roots of E. augustifolia into an infusion by placing one ounce by weight of the root in a pint jar, filling it to the top with boiling water, capping tightly, and brewing for eight or more hours. I figure that one ounce of this infusion is equal in action to a dropperful of tincture. (You’ll notice this is a very expensive way to use echinacea.)

͠   Susun Weed