Abstract
Echinacea has a rich cultural history, with widespread use by Native Americans in the Great Plains and Midwest for many ailments. Lewis and Clark recognized the plant as so important and potentially useful that they sent its roots and seeds to President Thomas Jefferson by boat from the Mandan village in North Dakota where they camped during the first winter of their epic (1804–1806) expedition. In less than 100 years, Echinacea did become an important patent medicine in the USA for snake bite, influenza, and other illnesses, and was popularized by the Lloyd Brothers and other early pharmacists. And by the 1990s, it became a best seller in the herbal products industry, largely because of consumer demand for a remedy for colds and flu, and with sporadic validation from scientific research.
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Kindscher, K. (2016). Introduction. In: Kindscher, K. (eds) Echinacea. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18156-1_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18156-1_1
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