The best herbs you've never heard of: Andrographis, guggul, passionflower and vinpocetine are lurking at a health food store near you. Here's why you should pick them up

While certain herbs bask in the limelight of consumer appreciation on a near-daily basis--ginseng echinacea. and ginkgo, to name a few--there are other important varieties that have a long history of efficacy and, more recently, the research to support their worth. Read on to discover four herbs that may be foreign to you but are well worth an introduction.

flu andrographins immunity cold

herb name: Andrographis paniculata (A. paniculata)

its promise: Fights colds and flu

the science says: Andrographis is an annual s rub native to India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. A trusted herb in traditional Chinese medicine, andrographis is believed to dispel heat, restore balance and remove toxins.

Recent research has shown andrographis is adept at fighting colds and flu. A. paniculata effectively relieves symptoms of respiratory tract infections and may even prevent them, according to an April 2004 review in Planta Medica that included seven double-blind studies with a total of 896 subjects.

Researchers at Silpakorn University in Thailand reported similar findings in the February 2004 Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics. They concluded that andrographis used alone or combined with Acanthopanax senticosus (a standardized combination known as Kan Jang) is suitable for treating respiratory tract infections.

how to take it: Available in dried and liquid supplements. For dried supplements, a typical high dose ranges from 6-9g per day split into intervals, and a low dose is 400mg twice daily. For liquid, the recommended dosage is 20-40ml per week.

precautions: Reproductive health is of concern with andrographis usage, stemming from animal studies where large doses were used. After six weeks, female mice given 2g of andrographis per kg of body weight every day were unable to conceive, according to a June 1989 study in the Bangladesh Medical Research Council Bulletin. In May 1990, the Indian Journal of Experimental Biology published a study that showed giving male rats 20mg per day of andrographis over 60 days negatively affected sperm production.

However, no negative effects on semen quality were seen in healthy men taking up to three times the recommended daily dose of Kan Jang, according to a June 2005 report in Phytomedicine, and a positive trend in sperm count and motility was cited by researchers at the Republican Medical Scientific Centre of Dermatology and Diseases Disseminated by Sexual Contacts in Yerevan, Armenia.

blood pressure cholesterol guggul heart

herb name: Commiphora mukul

its promise: Lowers cholesterol

the science says: A resin extracted from India's Commiphora muhul tree, guggul has been used in Ayurveda, an ancient Indian holistic healing system, for thousands of years. Current research has indicated guggul--and its active constituent, guggulsterone--protects heart health.

Guggul may be useful for preventing atherogenesis, the formation of plaque in the inner lining of arteries, according to a February 2004 study in Atherosclerosis. The most often cited benefit of guggul, though, is its effect on cholesterol, although there has been some conflicting evidence.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania suggest guggul may actually increase LDL cholesterol (the bad kind) if taken in doses of 1,000-2,000mg per day, standardized to 2.5 percent guggulsterones. The study appeared in the August 2003 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and involved 103 patients with high cholesterol who ate a typical Western diet.

Starkly different and far more positive results were seen in an earlier study of 61 patients with high cholesterol who combined a diet enriched with fruits and vegetables with 100mg per day of guggul (taken in two doses), which effectively lowered total (11.7 percent) and LDL cholesterols (12.5 percent), as well as triglycerides (12 percent). "The combined effect of diet and guggulipid [guggul] at 36 weeks was as great as the reported lipid-lowering effect of modern drugs," concluded researchers at the Heart Research Laboratory in Moradabad, India, in the August 1994 issue Cardiovascular Drugs Therapy

how to take it: Look for a supplement with standardized levels of guggulsterones; the usual recommendation is 25rag three times daily.

precautions: While guggul is generally well tolerated, it was blamed for causing a rash in six patients in the JAMA study, and it has been known to cause mild side effects such as diarrhea, abdominal pain, headaches and nausea in some people.

tranguil emotion passionflower calm

herb name: Passiflora incarnata

its promise: Diminishes anxiety

the science says: While its name suggests that it incites emotion, passionflower is actually good at restoring calm. The herb is as effective for treating generalized anxiety disorder as oxazepam, a pharmaceutical antianxiety drug, according to researchers at the Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Iran, writing in the October 2001 Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics. Additionally, the Iranian researchers stated passionflower has an advantage over the drug because it does not impair job performance as oxazepam does.