The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of dry hydro-alcoholic extract of Echinacea purpurea (IMMUNAL forte), or placebo, administered for seven days to 22 healthy human volunteers in daily dose of one or two tablets, on the angiogenic activity of their blood mononuclear cells (MNC), tested by mice cutaneous test (leukocyte-induced angiogenesis – LIA), and on the number of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes.
Results : Immunal forte administration resulted in highly statistically significant stimulation of MNC angiogenic activity in both dosage groups and significant increase of CD4/CD8 ratio in persons treated with 2 tablets daily what was connected with significant decrease of CD8+ lymphocytes in their blood. In persons treated with 1 tablet daily both CD8+ and CD4+ lymphocytes significantly increased in number. No stimulatory effect was observed after administration of placebo. All biochemical results were in normal values, and there were no differences between groups.