Abstract
The controversy related to echinacea and the common cold deepens. A well-designed clinical trial including over 400 patients was published in the July 28, 2005, edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. It showed that echinacea had no clinically significant effect on the symptoms of the common cold when used either as prophylaxis or treatment. Five trials published in 2003 and 2004 came to different conclusions: two showed that echinacea was efficacious, while three did not. A recent review on echinacea published in the March 2005 issue of the Southern Medical Journal is available at: www.sma.org/smj/archives/index.cfm.
CPhA's Board of Directors 2005–2006