Safety and Efficacy Profile of Echinacea purpurea to Prevent Common Cold Episodes: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial
Objective. To investigate the safety (risk) and efficacy (benefit) of Echinacea purpurea extract in the prevention of common cold episodes in a large population over a 4-month period. Methods. 755 healthy subjects were allocated to receive either an alcohol extract from freshly harvested E. purpure...
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| Format: | Online |
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Hindawi Publishing Corporation
2012
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| Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3457740/ |
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pubmed-34577402012-09-28 Safety and Efficacy Profile of Echinacea purpurea to Prevent Common Cold Episodes: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial Jawad, M. Schoop, R. Suter, A. Klein, P. Eccles, R. Research Article Objective. To investigate the safety (risk) and efficacy (benefit) of Echinacea purpurea extract in the prevention of common cold episodes in a large population over a 4-month period. Methods. 755 healthy subjects were allocated to receive either an alcohol extract from freshly harvested E. purpurea (95% herba and 5% root) or placebo. Participants were required to record adverse events and to rate cold-related issues in a diary throughout the investigation period. Nasal secretions were sampled at acute colds and screened for viruses. Results. A total of 293 adverse events occurred with Echinacea and 306 with placebo treatment. Nine and 10% of participants experienced adverse events, which were at least possibly related to the study drug (adverse drug reactions). Thus, the safety of Echinacea was noninferior to placebo. Echinacea reduced the total number of cold episodes, cumulated episode days within the group, and pain-killer medicated episodes. Echinacea inhibited virally confirmed colds and especially prevented enveloped virus infections (P < 0.05). Echinacea showed maximal effects on recurrent infections, and preventive effects increased with therapy compliance and adherence to the protocol. Conclusions. Compliant prophylactic intake of E. purpurea over a 4-month period appeared to provide a positive risk to benefit ratio. Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2012 2012-09-16 /pmc/articles/PMC3457740/ /pubmed/23024696 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/841315 Text en Copyright © 2012 M. Jawad et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| repository_type |
Open Access Journal |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
US National Center for Biotechnology Information |
| building |
NCBI PubMed |
| collection |
Online Access |
| language |
English |
| format |
Online |
| author |
Jawad, M. Schoop, R. Suter, A. Klein, P. Eccles, R. |
| spellingShingle |
Jawad, M. Schoop, R. Suter, A. Klein, P. Eccles, R. Safety and Efficacy Profile of Echinacea purpurea to Prevent Common Cold Episodes: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial |
| author_facet |
Jawad, M. Schoop, R. Suter, A. Klein, P. Eccles, R. |
| author_sort |
Jawad, M. |
| title |
Safety and Efficacy Profile of Echinacea purpurea to Prevent Common Cold Episodes: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial |
| title_short |
Safety and Efficacy Profile of Echinacea purpurea to Prevent Common Cold Episodes: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial |
| title_full |
Safety and Efficacy Profile of Echinacea purpurea to Prevent Common Cold Episodes: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial |
| title_fullStr |
Safety and Efficacy Profile of Echinacea purpurea to Prevent Common Cold Episodes: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Safety and Efficacy Profile of Echinacea purpurea to Prevent Common Cold Episodes: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial |
| title_sort |
safety and efficacy profile of echinacea purpurea to prevent common cold episodes: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial |
| description |
Objective. To investigate the safety (risk) and efficacy (benefit) of Echinacea purpurea extract in the prevention of common cold episodes in a large population over a 4-month period. Methods. 755 healthy subjects were allocated to receive either an alcohol extract from freshly harvested E. purpurea (95% herba and 5% root) or placebo. Participants were required to record adverse events and to rate cold-related issues in a diary throughout the investigation period. Nasal secretions were sampled at acute colds and screened for viruses. Results. A total of 293 adverse events occurred with Echinacea and 306 with placebo treatment. Nine and 10% of participants experienced adverse events, which were at least possibly related to the study drug (adverse drug reactions). Thus, the safety of Echinacea was noninferior to placebo. Echinacea reduced the total number of cold episodes, cumulated episode days within the group, and pain-killer medicated episodes. Echinacea inhibited virally confirmed colds and especially prevented enveloped virus infections (P < 0.05). Echinacea showed maximal effects on recurrent infections, and preventive effects increased with therapy compliance and adherence to the protocol. Conclusions. Compliant prophylactic intake of E. purpurea over a 4-month period appeared to provide a positive risk to benefit ratio. |
| publisher |
Hindawi Publishing Corporation |
| publishDate |
2012 |
| url |
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3457740/ |
| _version_ |
1611911654498369536 |