Herbal Cold Remedy No Help to Children

Echinacea, touted as an herbal remedy for the common cold, did nothing to alleviate symptoms in children, a study said.

"We found that there was no difference in both the length of cold symptoms and severity of cold symptoms in children who received either echinacea or placebo for their colds," said James Taylor of the University of Washington in Seattle, who led the study of 407 children.

"The average length of the colds in both groups was about nine days," he said.

The 2- to 11-year-old children were given either a syrup containing echinacea or a similar-tasting placebo when they fell ill with upper respiratory tract infections over four-month study periods.

The echinacea group was also found to be slightly more susceptible to unexplained rashes.

The results contrasted with earlier, less reliable studies that have shown echinacea to be somewhat effective in helping adults stricken with colds to recover, said the report, published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association.

On average, children suffer between six and eight colds a year, each lasting seven to nine days.

The most common type of echinacea is derived from a juice extracted from a flowering herb. An unregulated alternative therapy, it is given to as many as one of five North American children and has annual U.S. sales of roughly $300 million, the report said.

Reference Source 89

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