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Echinacea: How

Much is Enough?

by Phil Dittberner,

Plant Ecologist,

National Applied Resource

Sciences Center (NARSC)

Recently someone phoned a BLM

office requesting permission to

collect Echinacea spp. from public

lands in Montana. This request

raises the question, “Should a

permit be awarded?” How much

of the species should the requestor

be allowed to collect? How much

of the species or population can be

collected without decimating it?

How much can be collected without damaging the sustainability,

productivity, or viability of the

population or species?

The Natural Resources

Conservation Service’s PLANTS

data base lists 14 species or subspecies of the genus Echinacea.

Echinacea is native only to North

America. Two of the 14 species

are most popular for herbal remedies and are found in the U.S. in

substantial numbers: Echinacea

angustifolia (purple coneflower or

Blacksamson echinacea) and

Echinacea purpurea (Eastern purple

coneflower). Two species of the

genus are listed as endangered in

the U.S.: Echinacea laevigata,

(smooth purple coneflower) and

Echinacea tennesseensis, (Tennessee

purple coneflower). Both species

are found in the eastern U.S.

At one time Echinacea spp.

(purple coneflower) was fairly

popular as a medicinal herb. Then

there was a period of time when

Echinacea was not used much.

Recently Echinacea has again

gained popularity and is being

used in substantial amounts. It

currently ranks very high in sales

of herbal remedies in the U.S.,

with annual sales of almost $80

million. A pound of roots sells for

as much as $21. With this much

interest and value, there is bound

to be increased interest in harvesting wild populations. Coneflowers

are cultivated and used for medicinal purposes, but most commercial

supplies are taken from the wild. 

The species is easy to cultivate.

However, some people suspect that

the cultivated varieties are less

potent when used as herbal medications than wild populations are.

It is also thought that some collectors may not distinguish between

species of Echinacea and hence may

sometimes collect rare species.

Collectors are also often prone to

collect more individuals than a

population may be able to withstand and still carry on growth,

reproduction, and sustainability.

There are reports of medicinal

plant gatherers taking every plant

out of a 40-acre site near

Bartlesville, OK, and plant poachers being escorted from The

Nature Conservancy’s Tallgrass

Prairie Preserve near Pawhuska,

OK. The FWS is cooperatively

working with Clemson University

and others to promote Echinacea

species as an alternative cash crop

in an attempt to thwart Echinacea

poaching.

Echinacea was widely used by

Native Americans, and pioneers

used it for headaches, toothaches,

swellings, insect stings, and

snakebites. More recently it has

been used to protect against systemic infections, colds, flu, and ear

infections.

Most parts of the plants can

be used in various types of

extracts. The plants are somewhat

prolific but the root systems (one

of the more-used portions of the

plants) take about three years to

mature. In cultivated situations,

large numbers of plants are needed

to supply substantial amounts of

roots. In wild settings, the roots

tend to grow larger with time and

produce prolifically.

NO. 1 DATE 02/16/99