Purple Coneflower

History

Echinacea purpurea, commonly known as Purple Coneflower, is indigenous to the central and eastern United States, where it thrived on prairies and open woodlands long before European settlement. Native American tribes, particularly the Great Plains nations including the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Comanche, recognized echinacea as one of their most versatile medicinal plants—using it to treat everything from snake bites and wounds to toothaches and infections. The Lakota people specifically used echinacea more than any other plant for medicinal purposes, chewing the root for pain relief and applying poultices to wounds. When European settlers arrived, they quickly adopted echinacea from indigenous healers, and by the late 1800s, it became one of the most popular medicines in America. Dr. H.C.F. Meyer, a patent medicine salesman from Nebraska, began promoting echinacea extracts in the 1870s, claiming it could cure snake bites—a claim he allegedly demonstrated by letting rattlesnakes bite him repeatedly while using echinacea as his only treatment. Though Meyer's claims were exaggerated, serious medical interest followed. Eclectic physicians (alternative practitioners of the era) championed echinacea, and by 1921, it was the most prescribed plant medicine in the United States. When antibiotics emerged in the 1940s, echinacea fell out of favor in America but found new life in Germany, where rigorous scientific studies began in the 1950s. German Commission E approved echinacea for treating colds, flu, and upper respiratory infections in 1994, reigniting American interest. Today, echinacea is one of the best-selling herbal supplements worldwide, with hundreds of scientific studies exploring its immune-modulating properties, though results remain mixed and debated in the medical community.