Echinacea – immunity or children?

Echinacea – good or bad?
Three in one: boost your immunity, cure prostate adenoma, prevent infertility…

Echinacea can be called a “hyped brand” without exaggeration: constantly appearing in advertisements, always on everyone’s lips, everyone from schoolchildren to pensioners knows about the remarkable properties of this plant.
Indeed, purple coneflower Echinacea purpurea (tincture of rhizomes, herbs, and other preparations) has been widely used for the past 20 years to strengthen immunity and fight microbial and viral diseases.

It would seem that a panacea for autumn and spring colds has been found, and it is possible to strengthen the immune system and cope with unpleasant acute respiratory infections and viral diseases without vitamins.
But it’s not that simple.
An obsession with echinacea preparations can lead to completely unexpected results, especially when it comes to young men who want to have children.
American scientists from Loma Linda University, California (Ondrizek R.R., Chan P.J., Patton W.C., King A.) established back in 1999 that high doses of alcohol extract (tincture) of purple coneflower significantly reduce sperm motility, which is associated with the inhibition of sperm enzymes and the denaturation of sperm DNA.
In addition, pretreatment of eggs with echinacea extract led to a decrease in the fertilizing ability of sperm (they simply could not penetrate the egg).
These studies were confirmed by Lithuanian (Skaudickas D., Kondrotas A., Baltrusaitis K., Vaitiekaitis G., 2003–2009) and British (Ernst E., 2003) specialists. It was shown that when echinacea extracts were administered to mice and rats, their prostate, testicles, and epididymis mass decreased significantly, and testosterone production decreased.

However, this pronounced antiandrogenic effect of echinacea may be useful in the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia.
It is known that benign prostatic hyperplasia (= prostate adenoma) is a disease that occurs in almost every second man over the age of 50.
After 8 weeks of using purple coneflower extract in experiments on rats, a statistically significant decrease in the mass fraction of the prostate gland in relation to body weight was proven, and a decrease in the severity of changes in the histological structure of the prostate (reverse development of adenomatous nodes) was established.

Therefore, I appeal to young men: when taking echinacea preparations to support your immune system, remember that your chances of having children are reduced!

For men over 50, echinacea preparations are indicated as a preventive measure against prostate adenoma.

Literature

1. Ernst E. The risk-benefit profile of commonly used herbal therapies: Ginkgo, St. John’s Wort, Ginseng, Echinacea, Saw Palmetto, and Kava // Ann. Intern. Med. – 2002. – Vol.136, № 1. – Р.42-53.
    2. Ondrizek R.R., Chan P.J., Patton W.C., King A. Inhibition of human sperm motility by specific herbs used in alternative medicine // J. Assist. Reprod. Genet. – 1999. – Vol.16, № 2. – Р.87-91.
    3. Ondrizek R.R., Chan P.J., Patton W.C., King A. An alternative medicine study of herbal effects on the penetration of zona-free hamster oocytes and the integrity of sperm deoxyribonucleic acid // Fertil. Steril. – 1999. – Vol.71, № 3. – Р.517-522.
    4. Skaudickas D., Kondrotas A.J., Baltrusaitis K., Vaitiekaitis G. Effect of Echinacea (Echinacea purpurea L. Moench) preparations on experimental prostate gland // Medicina (Kaunas). – 2003. – Vol.39, № 8. – Р.761-766.
    5. Skaudickas D., Kondrotas A., Baltrusaitis K. The effect of Echinacea purpurea extract on sexual glands of male rats // Medicina (Kaunas). – 2004. – Vol.40, № 12. – Р.1211-1218.
    6. Skaudickas D., Kondrotas A.J., Kevelaitis E., Venskutonis P.R. The effect of Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench extract on experimental prostate hyperplasia // Phytother. Res. – 2009. – Vol.23, № 10. – Р.1474-1478.