ABSTRACT
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 3 Historical Taxonomy and Nomenclature ......................................................................................... 4 Taxonomic Revision of
Echinacea
.................................................................................................. 5 Other Recent Taxonomic Studies .................................................................................................... 8 Germplasm Enhancement and Applications of the Revised Taxonomy......................................... 8 References ...................................................................................................................................... 10
Echinacea
(Asteraceae) is a North American plant genus found in natural populations east of the Rocky Mountains in the Atlantic drainage region of the United States and Canada (Binns et al., 2002a). From snakebites to cancers, and toothaches to the common cold, medicinal preparations from plant parts of
Echinacea
species are used worldwide for their healing properties. Numerous medicinal uses of
Echinacea
were practiced historically by First Nations groups prior to their first documented uses by Western medical doctors and herbalists (Gilmore, 1911, 1913; Hart, 1981; Kindscher, 1989; Shemluck, 1982). Then, over the course of the 20th century, medical advances such as antibiotics eclipsed the prevalent use of
Echinacea
herbal medicines for infections (Hobbs, 1994). In market surveys,
Echinacea
is consistently one of the top 10 species of herbs sold (Brevoort, 1998). This constitutes a revival in
Echinacea
use from wild and cultivated sources that is due, in part, to the hundreds of pharmacological and clinical studies conducted since the early 1980s. At present, natural health products derived from
Echinacea
plant materials are leaders in a trend toward preventive health care and alternatives to synthetic pharmaceuticals. To this end, some requirements that remain to be defined and met are accurate botanical characterization and quality control of plant materials. Without these, there can be no successful modernization of
Echinacea
and other herbal medicines to fit state-of-the-art systems of health care, knowledge, and safety. One reason for the significant lack of well-characterized plant material is the lack of clarity in taxonomic classification and identification of
Echinacea
.
