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I have been able to prove for myself that Echinacea activates the immune system, and that it is therefore a great aid to the body’s resistance to micro-organisms. Time and again I have seen those with a weak lymphatic system and who suffer constant attacks of colds and catarrh, particularly children, overcome this susceptibility when put on regular medication with Echinacea preparations such as Echinaforce. Many parents have told me that their children have become more resistant to infectious diseases; the same is true of sensitive adults. Because of my practical experience, I maintain that Echinacea builds up the body’s own defences, above all, the efficiency of the phagocytes.

Scientists have discovered that Echinacea is able to render the hyaluronidase (an enzyme) produced by bacteria ineffective, preventing their proliferation. This helps us to understand why Echinacea neutralises snake poison, which also contains hyaluronidase.

Without doubt, Echinaforce can be used with confidence for every case of infection or infectious disease. It supports the body in every part where its defence mechanism needs to be improved, increasing overall resistance.

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Scientific research has confirmed that Echinacea improves and builds up immunity, even though it has not been possible, to date, to isolate a specific substance that is responsible for its remedial effect. I myself am convinced that no such active substances will ever be discovered because it is not some specific chemical that can be credited with the medicinal effect, but the complex of vital substances contained in the plant as a whole. It is the same with all other medicinal herbs; it is the entirety of substance – all the active and supporting substances in the plant – that achieves the desirable results. This is especially true in the case of a herb whose properties stimulate the immune system, since it acts not just on a single organ but on the body as a unit.

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Researchers have been taking a keen interest in Echinacea, with the aim of isolating its medicinal properties. First they tried, without success, to find the substances that prevent the growth and development of pathogenic organisms, since it was thought that this is what happens.

It was much later, however, when they discovered that the effect of Echinacea is not attributable to some antibiotic property, but to its ability to reinforce the body’s own defence mechanism. Medical science began to realise then that here was a very remarkable plant indeed. After all, the immune system is one of the most important things in our body. Without its proper functioning, without a good defence mechanism, we could not survive. We are constantly subjected to the attacks of millions of germs. However, these agents can multiply and cause damage in the human body only if they find the breeding ground necessary for their survival and if the defence system is weak.

The immune system is weakened by our modern, unnatural way of life. It is therefore understandable that a herbal remedy such as Echinacea is gaining in stature.

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Some time after the above experience, I travelled to the Amazon region and visited a jungle where malaria was rampant. I was accompanied on this study tour by a colleague who had been working with me in Peru, a man who was well acclimatised to South America.

I took the risk of travelling without malaria drugs, but I did take Echinacea tincture daily, about forty drops every morning and evening. During the first few days we put up a mosquito net, but in the native huts the mosquitoes were able to slip through the chinks in the bamboo floor. We even killed some blood-filled insects under the net.

My colleague had no confidence in Echinacea and declined to take any. Like myself, he must have been bitten hundreds of times. The area we visited around the Upper Maranon was notorious and feared for malaria. Although I was bitten all over, I was astonished that I did not once come down with a fever attack, whereas my colleague returned home with a bad case of the disease. Unfortunately, he had not taken any remedy. He believed that his sixteen years in Peru had made him immune to malaria. However, the area where he had been living, at our farm in Tarapoto, was malaria-free, unlike the Amazon region we visited on this occasion.

Thirty years later, a medical check-up brought to light that I had once had a malaria infection, which could only have been during this visit to the Maranon. As I had never suffered so much as a bout of fever or any other symptom of the disease, I came to the obvious conclusion that Echinacea may well help to prevent malaria.

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One day I was cutting grass on a steep meadow when I hit my foot with the scythe. It was careless of me, but I did not immediately disinfect the cut, only bandaged it with a handkerchief and carried on with my work. Because of this negligence, it was not surprising when blood poisoning set in. Well now, I thought, this is a chance to put our herb to the test and see whether the Indians were right. I proceeded exactly the way Black Eagle had taught me. Already a long blue line was visible on the leg and higher up, in the groin, there was a swollen lymph node. So I covered the whole leg with a dressing of crushed Echinacea leaves. Furthermore, I chewed some and swallowed the juice. In fact, I ate the whole plant. Now came the surprise, for within quite a short time the inflammation and infection were gone. This experience convinced me that everything I had been told about Echinacea was true.

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Then Black Eagle showed me this highly prized plant, or plants to be more exact. I discovered that it was the coneflower, Echinacea angustifolia and Echinacea purpurea. One of the two varieties, Echinacea angustifolia, has a tap root, and I still remember how deep I had to dig to get it out. The other variety has a rootstock and does not penetrate quite so deep into the earth.

The chief explained that both plants were equal in their effect. But having heard so many marvellous things about what this plant could do I began to think it was almost too good to be true. Still, I took some seeds back home with me and began to grow Echinacea in the Swiss lowlands as well as at an elevation of 1,600 m (4,500 feet); that was in Teufen and in Brail (in the Engadine), where I used to have a house with a large garden. At first, the plants were quite sensitive to the cold in the mountains, but I persevered for ten years until they became acclimatised and began to produce flowers.

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Even snake poison could be made ineffective with it. When someone was bitten by a poisonous snake, he told me, another person would suck the bite until blood began to flow. Of course, the attendant would spit the poison out. Next, the leaves and roots of the plant were chewed up, preferably by the unfortunate victim himself. The juice was swallowed but the masticated plant was applied to the bite and bandaged. This treatment was repeated at least twice, and then repeated again on the second and third day. By the fourth day, the effect of the poison would have disappeared and the victim would be out of danger.

These Indians used to do the same thing to treat injuries. Again, the masticated plant would be placed on the affected part, and a serious situation would never arise provided this plant was on hand and was applied immediately. Certain arrow poisons could be neutralised by the same method. And if one wanted to prevent susceptibility to colds and catarrh in bad and blustery weather, he only had to chew the leaves or roots of the plant. The ingested juice would build up resistance to everything we now call infectious diseases.

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Black Eagle’s ideas about illness and disease were of great interest to me, and in this respect we discussed the importance of medicinal herbs as well as nutrition, or proper diet. He believed that the white man’s customs and habits had overtaxed the regenerative powers our Creator, or nature, had implanted in us and that he often had only himself to blame for the resulting diseases.

It was from Black Eagle that I learned about the curative effects of various plants growing in South Dakota, the home of his tribe. One plant in particular enjoyed his special appreciation. Considered as sacred, this medicinal herb had been a life-saver on many occasions. His ancestors, he said, used it to cure cases of blood poisoning.

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