Which Plant Part of Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench) Should be Used for Tea and Which for Tincture?

Abstract

Medicinal plants are widely used for the relief of disease symptoms or as dietary supplements. In recent decades, purple coneflower has become extremely well known. An infusion or tincture of purple coneflower can be prepared by anyone simply, inexpensively, and ecologically safely. Three plant parts of purple coneflower were used in the study: extracts from roots, flowers, and leaves were obtained using three different solvents (100% and 40% ethanol and water). High-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrophotometer identified and quantified 23 individual phenolics. Pure (100%) ethanol gave the lowest yield of all the investigated phenolic compounds in all herb parts. Chicoric and caftaric acids were the major phenolic compounds in coneflower. Caftaric acid, with health promoting properties, was extracted best in a water solution from purple coneflower leaves (2673.31 mg/100 g dry weight [DW]) and chicoric acid, also with a beneficial effect on human health, yielded the highest levels in 40% ethanol solution from flowers (1571.79 mg/100 g DW) and roots (1396.27 mg/100 g DW).

Changes in beneficial bioactive compounds in eight traditional herbal liqueurs during a one‐month maceration process

“…Crushing increases the surface area and the enhanced contact of plant material with the solvent, which allows a faster transfer of selected compounds across the cell membrane into the final product . However, this also depends on the location of these compounds (vacuole, nucleus or cell wall) . In ethanolic solution, phenolics need more time to transfer from the plants into the solvent, and phenolics in 40% ethanol reached higher values after 14 or 21 days of maceration than did plant material in the control treatment (80% MeOH).…”

“…(2008) reported that a concentration of organic solvent above 60% means higher protein coagulation, which causes greater diffusion resistance . Nevertheless, more polar phenolics in their chemical structure yielded the lowest content of pure organic solvent than in a mixture of solvents . This means that ethanol, with a lower percentage of organic solvent and a higher percentage of water, was better for extraction than 80% methanol.…”

“…It is considered in general that water extracts have higher quantities of more polar compounds, whereas organic solvents have a higher proportion of low‐polarity compounds . The studies mentioned additionally reported that water was more appropriate for the extraction of plant material than various pure organic solvents, such as ethanol or methanol.…”

Improving growth properties and phytochemical compounds of Echinacea purpurea (L.) medicinal plant using novel nitrogen slow release fertilizer under greenhouse conditions

“…Main physiochemical properties of soil sample was given in Table 3. According to results, the soil had neutral reaction without salinity effect (EC less than 2 dS m −1 ) which is suitable for wide range of nutrients availability 20 . As well as, it had calcareous nature (more than 5% CaCO 3 at topsoil) with sandy clay loam texture.…”

“…All of them are able affect the free radical production and lipid peroxidation 6 . Recent studies also relevant that echinacoside and caffeic acid derivative have weak anti-bacterial and antiviral effects and are protectants against reactive oxygen species 20,39 . The antioxidant activity could be ascribed to the polyphenolic components 13 , such as flavonoids 34 , phenolic acids 35 or phenolic diterpenes 9 .…”