Kansas City, Mo. ? A Kansas research consortium is aiming to make purple prairie coneflowers a viable alternative crop and a safe and effective mainstream medication.

The flower, also known as echinacea, is already used as an immune system stimulant.

“There’s a certain mystique about the Kansas wildcrafted echinacea that commands a higher price,” said Alan Stevens, director for Kansas State University research stations at the Sunflower Ammunition Plant near DeSoto in Johnson County, and in Wichita.

Medical science doesn’t know much about natural remedies such as echinacea, and although the plants are adapted to Midwest soils and climate, farmers know little about growing them.

The consortium may be the only team in the United States mixing botany, agronomy, medicinal chemistry and medical practice, consortium researchers said.

“We’re all working together from the field to the chemistry lab and to clinical trials with patients,” said Kelly Kindscher, a Kansas University plant ecologist and author of the book “Medicinal Wild Plants of the Prairie.”

That’s unusual and probably unprecedented, said Cydney E. McQueen, a professor of pharmacology at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. McQueen, who specializes in natural products, said she was unaware of the Kansas project.

“It’s a much-needed area of research,” McQueen said.

The plants are difficult research subjects because they contain several active chemical compounds, she said. Pharmaceutical companies shy away because of that, and the fact that plant compounds are hard to patent for profit.

While some experts say consumer interest is strong, doctors have not embraced herbal remedies because they are not consistent in production, processing, labeling and effectiveness, Stevens said. Folklore has guided the market.

“You wonder why you got a cold when taking echinacea one time but you didn’t the other time,” Stevens said. “It may be the way it was grown. If the way it grows best is developed in Kansas, we’ve got a head start and can get side businesses like processing plants.”

Consortium agronomists also are growing woodland plants such as ginseng, a reputed circulation booster. Wild elderberry is being grown to test its fruit that has antioxidants. Several grassland plants are being grown, such as the anti-depressant St. John’s wort and red clover, which is believed to smooth hormone changes.

“But no one has ever looked at what part of the plant is most important,” said Jeanne Drisko, a doctor at KU Medical Center who specializes in alternative treatments.