Has anyone tried the herbal antibiotics like echinacea and goldenseal?  Are
they as effective as prescription antiobiotics

Out of lurking to post my experiences on these herbs (with an "h").
Echinacea is an immune system booster, so your brother may be helped by
taking it for a month before he normally gets the cold.  It is recommended
that echinacea not be taken continuously, but cycled such as 4 weeks on and
1 week off (or something like that).  Once the cold occurs, I believe he
would be better off taking a garlic/parsley softgel combination.  Garlic is
antibiotic, so this, combined with echinacea, may prevent the infection
altogether.  Swallowing that much garlic (1-2 capsules every 3-4 hours) is
not pleasant, however.  Even with the parsley for a deodorant, the garlic
odor is a problem for me.  I have had good results with sipping peppermint
tea all day long to ease/cure(?) the sore throat that often accompanies
sinus infections.

IMO, these herbal remedies are not as effective as antibiotics, but
antibiotics are strong medicine that some people want to avoid and these
herbal remedies may be a good alternative.

I was plagued by these yearly infections as well, but have avoided them the
past 2-3 years.  I wonder if the infections were stress related and/or,
may-be, because I expected to get a sinus infection yearly that my body
cooperated and gave me one??

Good luck!