Efficacy and Safety of Echinacea in Treating
Upper Respiratory Tract Infections in Children

FROM:   JAMA 2003;   290 (21):   2824–2830

Taylor JA, Weber W, Standish L, Quinn H, Goesling J, McGann M, Calabrese C

Child Health Institute, University of Washington and Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, Seattle, Wash


Depending upon how you interpret a study, echinacea may — or may not — be effective in reducing the severity of upper respiratory tract infections in children, according to a study in the Dec. 3 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Echinacea is an herb commonly used by adults for the prevention and treatment of upper respiratory infections in adults. According to the study, the average child gets six to eight colds each year, with each lasting seven to nine days. James A. Taylor, MD, from the University of Washington, Seattle, and his colleagues conducted a randomized controlled trial to determine the effectiveness and safety of Echinacea purpurea in treating URIs in children two to 11 years old. The authors said there was no difference in duration between upper respiratory tract infections treated with echinacea or a placebo. Nor was there a statistically significant difference between the two groups for peak severity of symptoms, number of days of peak symptoms, number of days of fever or parental global assessment of severity of the URI.

However, the press release from JAMA failed to mention that the children in the echinacea group experienced significantly fewer second and third upper respiratory tract infections than children in the placebo group during the four-month trial, according Mark Blumenthal, founder and executive director of the American Botanical Council, a nonprofit research and education organization concerning herbs and medicinal plants. The study’s authors state, “It is conceivable that Echinacea stimulated an immune response in study children that was too late to modify the URI for which it was given but provided a window of protection against another URI in the child.” This finding was not part of the trials’ primary outcomes.

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Since 12-05-2003