Background: Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea L.) is one of the most important medicinal plants. Hairy root culture of Echinace, represent a valuable alternative to field cultivation for the production of bioactive secondary metabolites. Objective: The present study investigates the effects of KNO3, CaCl2 and MgSO4 concentrations on growth and the biosynthesis of cichoric acid in Echinacea...

The concentrations of caffeic acid derivatives within Lamiaceae and Echinacea (herb, spice, tea, and dietary supplement forms) readily available in the US marketplace (n = 72) were determined. After the first identification of chicoric acid in Ocimum basilicum (basil), the extent to which chicoric acid could be found within the family Lamiaceae was investigated. The dominant phenolic acid in al...

 Background: Oxidation of lipids causes reduction of different properties of products that contains lipids. Nowadays, there is a growing demand for the natural antioxidants due to the harmful effects of synthetic antioxidants such as BHA, BHT and TBHQ. Objective: In this study, extract of aerial parts of Echinacea purpurea L. was used instead of synthetic antioxidants in cake then, ant...

The herb Echinacea purpurea, also called purple coneflower, is regarded as an immune modulator. This study examined changes in cytokine production in blood samples from 30 volunteers before and during 8-day oral administration with an ethanolic extract of fresh Echinacea purpurea (Echinaforce(®)). Daily blood samples were ex vivo stimulated by LPS/SEB or Zymosan and analysed for a series of cyt...

Background & Aim: Hydroxycinnamic acids are one of the most important bioactive substances of Echinacea drugs. These compounds possess immuno-enhancing activity and thus, total hydroxycinnamic acids are mostly used as the main criterion for quality control of Echinacea purpurea and its drugs.  Hence, the quality control of Echinacea requires to develo...

previous studies have shown antiviral effect of echinacea and elderberry preparations against human influenza viruses in vitro. to investigate the in vivo antiviral effect of these herbs on avian h9n2 influenza virus, amantadine and two standardized commercial extracts of echinacea purpurea (ef) and sambucus nigra (sam) were used in broiler chickens infected with h9n2 strain of the virus. ef, s...