Another great book is "Guaranteed Potency Herbs Next Generation
Herbal Medicine" by Daniel B. Mowrey, Ph.D. Keats Publishing,
Inc. New Caanan, CT. This is a really good book, very scientific
(which means, to those of you not used to reading scientific
literature, that it is VERY informative but a little dry, but
this is the least driest of scientific literature that i have
read in a long time). It only discusses a few herbs, those which
a significant amount of scientific research has been done on and
which the Western Medical Science community has grudgingly begun
to accept. Namely, Billberry, Butcher's broom (which i take for
non-rheumatoidal arthritis), Centella, Echinacea, Gingko (the
tree which thrives on pollution, which is why there are so many
in NYC), Ginseng, Milk Thistle, and Tumeric. Like I said, it's
main focus is on 'guarunteed potency herbs.'
The author
laments, however, that not enough scientific research has been
done on echinacea.
On page 60, under 'Route of
Administration' the author states; "The guarunteed potency
echinacea is currently available only as capsule." It doesn't
mention how this capsule is prepared. I would assume that it is
either powdered (no mention as to either root or leaves, but i
assume root) or freeze-dried (scientifically known as
'lyophilized').
The author states under the heading
'Toxicity;' "Echinacea does not appear to be toxic even at very
high doses. Incidentally, heavy use of echinacea may induce
temporary infertility in the male." And then the author goes on
to the reason why.
To anyone that is interested, there are 39
references to scientific articles at the end of the echinacea
section. i will send a xerox copy of this index to anyone who
emails me for my address and then sends me a self addressed
stamped envelope. There are a few references to the isolation of
the polysaccharides in echinacea. You can discover their methods
of extraction, if you wish. Also, I have lots of scientific
literature at my disposal, i will help anyone find an article if
they want (but i have time limits, don't expect expediency,
please).
This is a great book for the herbs in it, especially
in dosage and delivery. For echinacea it suggests that
mega-doses are not necessary, only moderate doses. (in other
words, increased efficacy was not found by increasing the dose).
It's suggestion is two to four 125mg capsules per day. A few
weeks on then a few weeks off. It states that this is the
recommendation of most European manufacturers of echinacea.
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