THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 6, 1997 TAG: 9701060048
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY JEFFREY S. HAMPTON, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: 91 lines
Attacks of the flu in northeastern North Carolina this winter have depleted schools of students and offices of staff. It may be time to send flowers.
Specifically, the purple coneflower.
Experts in botanical medicine say the plant with the long stems and droopy violet petals helps prevent flu and cures hundreds of other ailments. And one local extension agent is trying to get local farmers to grow the plant.
Known as echinacea, the purple coneflower was the plant most used for healing by the Plains Indians, according to several guides to medicinal plants. In Germany, where botanical medicine is widely practiced, echinacea is prescribed for 200 ailments, from syphilis to snake bites.
Locally, the number of echinacea followers is rising.
``It has helped me out,'' said Kathleen Rice of Elizabeth City about echinacea's effect on her sinus troubles. She also gave it to her 8-year-old daughter and said the girl began to feel better within a few days.
Some medical professionals, however, are very skeptical about the coneflower's claims.
``The purple coneflower? Ha, ha, ha,'' said Jean Merrill, a nurse and patient care coordinator at Beach Medical Care in Kitty Hawk.
Echinacea is sold over the counter in most pharmacies and health stores. It comes in capsules, salve, powder, tea leaves and a concentrated liquid. A hundred capsules sell for about $10. One ounce of the liquid from the root extract sells for $11.
``The cheapest thing to do is to get a flu shot,'' said Dr. James Wilkinson, who specializes in internal medicine at Beach Medical Care.
Annual shots cost $20 at Wilkinson's office, and while the shots cannot ward off all of the garden varieties of flu, Merrill said that they are effective against the major ones.
Echinacea grows in the wild in the central states. Herb gardeners cultivate the plant here.
``Plant it in good soil, and it needs plenty of sunlight,'' said Peggy Watts, who owns an herb nursery in Elizabeth City. ``Basically it's an easy plant to grow.''
To prepare the alleged elixir, put 1 to 2 teaspoonfuls of the root in 1 cup of water and boil it to make a tea. Drink it three times a day, says a book called ``Holistic Herbal'' by David Hoffman.
In his book, ``The Way of Herbs,'' Michael Tierra, a doctor of naturopathic medicine, says the dosage can be as frequent as half a cup of tea every two hours.
Rice, who manages the GNC health and nutrition store in Southgate Mall in Elizabeth City, said echinacea is very effective mixed with goldenseal. Health stores sell capsules with the pair of herbs already mixed.
Tom Campbell, agriculture extension agent for Pasquotank County, swears by echinacea and goldenseal capsules, saying they prevented him from getting strep throat two years ago.
``It was a Friday in March 1995 and I was preparing to go to an important meeting in Ocean City, Md.,'' said Campbell. ``I was coming down with what I was convinced was strep throat. I was getting a headache and a fever. My throat was raw, and I was developing a fever.''
Campbell had strep throat several times before. He was worried he would have to cancel his trip and go to the doctor for antibiotics.
``I thought, `This is a lousy time to get this.' ''
He was driving by Nature's Emporium on Main Street in Elizabeth City and, though skeptical, decided to stop.
Campbell was sure he would tell the clerk his symptoms and be told to go see a doctor. But she surprised him. She recommended echinacea and goldenseal capsules and some tincture of propolis (a waxy substance collected by bees from the buds of trees) for the sore throat.
``I instantly felt better,'' said Campbell. ``My fever subsided within 20 minutes. I took the pills as I needed. By the next morning I felt normal again.''
He kept taking the capsules for four days until the symptoms passed.
Campbell said he is always searching for markets for alternative crops such as echinacea. He has lobbied Avoca Farms, the agricultural research ranch in Bertie County owned by R.J. Reynolds. So far, only a few local herb growers, such as Watts, have been interested in growing it, mostly because of the shortage of mass markets.
Some reports say that less than 1 percent of the physicians in the United States recommend botanical medicine. In Europe, botanical medicine is more popular than pharmaceutical medicine, said Don McLemore, an information specialist with the Herb Research Foundation in Boulder, Colo. German doctors have prescribed echinacea regularly since the 1930s.
``Physicians here are taught the benefits of pharmaceutical medicines and don't know anything about botanical medicine,'' said McLemore. ``But the more it costs to support synthetic medicine the more people are going to turn to botanical alternatives.''
McLemore said echinacea's popularity blooms this time of year when people are buying it to keep themselves from getting the flu.
Though Watts grows her own, she uses the echinacea capsules regularly during the winter and lauds their effects.
``I feel like it helps me,'' said Watts. ``Even if it doesn't cure you, sometimes if you think you feel better, then you do.''