heraldsun.com.au December 25, 2010

PEOPLE who buy echinacea to stave off a common cold are wasting their money and should buy chocolate instead, two separate scientific studies have claimed.
Echinacea, which is believed to minimise the impact of a common cold, was studied by scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.

They found the over-the-counter herbal treatment only slightly delayed cold symptoms

In tests of 719 people, aged between 12 and 80, volunteers were randomly given either no pill, a pill they knew contained echinacea, or a pill that could have been echinacea or a placebo.

Those who received echinacea saw the duration of their cold reduced by seven to 10 hours.

"Trends were in the direction of benefit, amounting to an average half-day reduction in the duration of a weeklong cold or an approximate 10 percent reduction in overall severity," said Bruce Barrett, the lead researcher, writing in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

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"However, this dose regimen did not make a large impact on the course of the common cold, compared either to blinded placebo or to no pills," he concluded.