Echinacea: An age-old immune-boosting herb

Cold and flu season is upon us, but before you reach for the medication from the bathroom cabinet, have you considered checking your garden?

There are a bunch of ways to boost your immunity, but incorporating powerful herbs, such as echinacea into your diet is a helpful way to prevent getting sick  — and it turns out, you can grow it at home too!

Echinacea is a medical herb commonly used to combat flu and colds, Sydney-based horticulturist and Plant Life Balance ambassador Georgina Reid explains. Echinacea cuts the chances of catching a common cold by 58 per cent, according to a study, published in the British journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.

Not only can it boost your immunity, but echinacea is also a natural pain reliever and an anti-inflammatory. “[It’s] great for relieving sore throats, toothache, tonsillitis and other ailments,” Georgina added.

Regular consumption has been shown to reverse and even alleviate various types of inflammation.

So how can you incorporate echinacea into your everyday diet? One of the easiest ways to prepare echinacea is by making it into a tea.

“Add one or two teaspoons of fresh or dried echinacea leaves, flower parts (if using flowers, pick them early in the season) or root (considered by many to be the most potent part of the plant), to 250 millilitres of water over medium heat and let simmer for 15 minutes while covered,” Reid advises.

Next, strain into a mug and add honey for a sweeter taste. Before consuming, Reid recommends checking with your doctor, adding: “even though echinacea is considered by many as a relatively safe herb to ingest, its consumption can cause side effects in some people”.

If you’re up for the challenge, echinacea is generally easy to grow. Research shows the fresher the herb, the more effective the remedy will be.

Reid says to plant the echinacea seeds one centimetre deep into the soil and keep well watered until germination, which usually takes between 10 to 20 days — it’s that simple.

Echinacea thrives in full sun, but can do well in partial shade to.

“Echinacea does like quite a bit of water, but will tolerate drier conditions once established,” Reid said.

She says they flower in late summer and will grow to around one-metre tall in the garden, adding: “[It’ll] look great in mixed perennial plantings”. “Also, when consuming herbs from your garden make sure you are not eating plants that have been exposed to chemical fertilisers or pesticides,” she added.

Reid advises cutting the echinacea stems back to the ground in winter, as the plant will re-shoot in spring with lovely new foliage.

A member of the daisy family, echinacea is also great for attracting beneficial bugs to your garden.

What do you incorporate into you diet to fight common colds? Have you tried echinacea?

IMPORTANT LEGAL INFO This article is of a general nature and FYI only, because it doesn’t take into account your personal health requirements or existing medical conditions. That means it’s not personalised health advice and shouldn’t be relied upon as if it is. Before making a health-related decision, you should work out if the info is appropriate for your situation and get professional medical advice.