Echinacea - from Uffenheim all over the world

Elke Peter's family has been growing the medicinal plant Echinacea for 40 years. Most people will know the plant as echinacea. The plant has been known in Germany since the beginning of the 20th century. It is said to help with cold symptoms, toothache or burns, for example. 

Elke Peter explained in her lecture during the health weeks at MEKRA Lang in Ergersheim the individual production steps up to the finished Echinacea juice. But powder can also be obtained from the plant. 

"It doesn't taste delicious," admits Elke Peter. "It works nevertheless." Those who are allergic to daisy plants should, however, keep their distance from the echinacea plant. There are no other side effects. The remedy should not be taken for longer than two weeks. The body quickly gets used to it. The listeners who were eager to try it could also convince themselves of its modest taste. Quite a few of them screwed up their faces. 

The production facility in Uffenheim has high standards. The pharmaceutical authority regularly checks the obligations that go along with this. Elke Peter's product also has other certificates such as organic, kosher and halal. 

Echinacea is a robust plant of which only the above-ground part is harvested during the flowering period. The plant is grown by farmers from the region. It takes four to five years for the echinacea to grow, be taken from the fields and processed. The remains of the pressed herb are fed into the biogas plant. 

A round cycle, which makes Elke Peter very proud. Large quantities are sold to major customers in various countries. In Germany there is a very small market for Echinacea. Foreign countries are much more interested in the ancient medicinal plant with its manifold effects.