The media and Echinacea sales and use

Abstract

How the media reports on Echinacea research in news articles substantially affects the sale of Echinacea products in the market place. Using internet tools, we analyzed newspapers in major markets and found that negative research results were reported more often and for longer periods of time than positive results. We documented that people are now using the internet to follow up on news reports on herbal products that they read about. We believe the factors influencing reporters’ perspective, that these consumers read, include a desire to disprove what is current wisdom, vary according to the quality of research in individual studies, illustrate difficulty in placing herbal products into medical paradigms, and demonstrate difficulties in understanding herbal medicine in general. Herbal medicine requires a different paradigm, especially because plants like Echinacea have multiple active compounds.