Purple Coneflower

Notes:

Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) was and still is a widely used medicinal plant of the Plains Indians. It was used as a painkiller and for a variety of ailments, including toothache, coughs, colds, sore throats, and snake bite. The Choctaw use purple coneflower as a cough medicine and gastro-intestinal aid. The Delaware used an infusion of coneflower root for gonorrhea and found it to be highly effective. The purple coneflower was the only native prairie plant popularized as a medicine by folk practitioners and doctors. It was used extensively as a folk remedy. Purple coneflower root was used by early settlers as an aid in nearly every kind of sickness. If a cow or a horse did not eat well, people administered Echinacea in its feed.