The clinical efficacy of KanJang oral solution, a fixed combination of standardised extracts of Echinacea purpurea, Adhatoda vasica and Eleutherococcus senticosus, was compared with the combined extracts of E. purpurea and E. senticosus alone (Echinacea mixture) in a double-blind RCT and with bromhexine (a standard treatment) in a controlled, open RCT on patients with non-complicated acute respiratory tract infections. Many of the parameters evaluated, such as severity of coughing, frequency of coughing, efficacy of mucus discharge in the respiratory tract, nasal congestion and a general feeling of sickness, showed significantly greater improvement in patients treated with KanJang compared with those receiving the standard treatment. However, no significant differences in the improvement of these symptoms (except in a reduced frequency of coughing) were observed between patients treated with the Echinacea mixture and those receiving the standard treatment. The lack of extract of A. vasica in the Echinacea mixture may thus reduce its efficacy compared with the complete KanJang oral solution even though direct double-blind comparison yielded no significant differences between these two groups of patients. The recovery time of patients being treated with KanJang or Echinacea mixture was 2 days shorter than that of patients receiving the standard treatment. None of the patients completing the study reported adverse reactions.