While the popular herbal remedy echinacea may help shorten the length and severity of cold symptoms, it does not prevent a cold, German researchers report."Frankly, I would not actively recommend that consumers take echinacea preparations at the moment,” study author Dr. Klaus Linde, of the Center for Complementary Medicine Research, Technical University of Munich, said in a prepared statement.The findings appear in the current issue of The Cochrane Library.Echinacea, made from the echinacea purpurea plant, is the top-selling herb in Europe and the United States for the treatment and prevention of colds. In their review, Linde and his team analyzed results from 16 clinical trials. The majority of those studies compared echinacea to a placebo or no treatment. Pressed juices, tablets made from dried extracts, and echinacea suspended in alcohol were the most common forms of the supplement used in the studies.
