No curb on herb is poison for company.

• Position: Brief Article

In cold and flu season, it seems everybody's popping echinacea pills and sipping echinacea tea. The purported immunity booster has become one of the best-known herbal remedies. But the potent preparation has done in at least one adherent, a 100-year-old company hoping to ride it to riches. Boone-based Wilcox Natural Products, once among the nation's largest herb distributors, has closed or sold its operations.

The company had figured it was well-positioned to reap the rewards of the booming botanical industry. And for a while it did, with revenues growing about 25% a year, reaching $28 million a couple of years ago. To augment its supply of wild herbs, Wilcox began cultivating them. On its 425-acre California spread, it could raise enough echinacea to meet the nation's entire demand.

But Wilcox wasn't the only company cranking up production, and with all that herb flooding the wholesale market, it tanked. Echinacea, which went for $4.50 a pound two years ago, now sells for 50 cents. And it's...