As you all probably know there have been a recent series of medical
articles on actual studies of some alternative medications: some of
which which do work like palmetto for enlarged prostate and some zinc
preparations for colds (though not all zinc preparations worked on
testing); some of which can be dangerous such as ephedra; and some of
which don't seem to have any effect at all, including echinacea.  That's
right, no effect from echinacea.  Why should you care?  A number of people
take this herb and some also give it to their ferrets, which creates a very
strange bit of irony.
 
You see, much of the echinacea used is wild gathered in the prairies of the
United States.  Now, this wouldn't be a problem if only a few hundred or a
few thousand people used the stuff, but what is happening is that far, far
more are buying it, just in the hope that they and their families will
avoid a cold or some other commonplace infection.  This is resulting in
some areas becoming depleted of what some harvesters called "Green Gold"
(as per a newspaper article Steve's folks sent us from Montana).  In an
ecosystem nothing stands alone so there will be other life forms which
partly depend on echinacea (or on other herbs gathered there for herbal
preparations, or both).  As ferret people, the health of the prairie is
important to us.  We all know what the depletion of the prairie dog did to
the Black Footed Ferret.  With the genetic distribution of the known
survivors being so narrow they have to be widely dispersed and carefully
bred to reduce deaths, while trying to mix their genes with other wild
populations -- both by trying to find such populations and by having
controlled releases of BFFs to multiple areas.  When ferret people waste
their ferret-health dollars on a wild-harvested echinacea preparation which
doesn't work they not only deplete that monetary resource, but they also
help destroy the very ecosystems which must stay in tact if there is to be
any decent chance of saving our pets' distant cousin, the Black Footed
Ferret.
 
(Here's another bit of historic irony about the loss of the BFFs: studies
of prairie fertility and of the nutrient composition of grasses show that
prairie dog colonies vastly improve both.  Yet, people killed them off to
the point where some of the types of prairie dogs are in serious shape,
thinking to improve grazing areas by doing so, but only resulting in
damaging the grazing areas and killing other critters, like the BBFs, as
well.)
 
Moral: if you want to throw away money that's your business, but (without
saying WHY you want to know -- to increase the chances of a continuingly
honest response) you should call the places which make the preparations you
buy and learn if the herbs are wild-gathered or cultivated, or you might be
destroying your ferrets' distant cousins down the line...
 
Sukie
[Posted in FML issue 2494]