VERSAILLES, Ky. (AP) -- Warren and Donna McKnight weren’t watching The Oprah Winfrey Show last April, when Dr. Mehmet Oz appeared on the program to plug neti pots, an age-old system for clearing out the nasal passages.

But they quickly sniffed it out.

The McKnights, of Versailles, own a company that markets neti pots called Narial Nasal Cups.

Although the neti pot shown on Oprah was made by one of the McKnights’ competitors, “the phone started ringing off the hook” as soon as the segment was finished, said Julie McKnight, Warren McKnight’s daughter and a company employee. “It was exciting. It took a few weeks for it to finally level out.”

Although the initial influx of orders slowed, the McKnights said last year was very strong for them, as neti pots were featured in newspapers, magazines and television spots all over the country.

They declined to disclose specific sales and revenue numbers, but Warren McKnight estimated that sales have tripled over the past year.

They’ve shipped more than 4,000 neti pots to one Florida distributor since midsummer, and they have sold 1,300 to Good Foods Market & Cafe in Lexington over the past year.

Another company recently called, wanting 2,000 a week.

“I said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m not that big,”’ Donna McKnight said.

While it would be nice to have such a client, the McKnights said they’re trying to pace the company’s growth.

Donna McKnight said she had begun working a little more aggressively to market the company when the Oprah spot appeared, which required her to slow down again.

Narial Nasal Cups has 120 wholesale customers in the United States. The company occasionally gets requests from overseas, but it has declined them so far in order to focus on filling orders here.

Many of their clients are small yoga studios.

Good Foods is one of the company’s largest steady clients.

Nancy Coveney, the grocery’s wellness manager, said the store has been carrying Narial Nasal Cups for at least a dozen years and has had so many requests for them that they are now available in two locations inside the store.

Coveney, who uses a neti pot herself, said “it’s a great basic maintenance technique.”

“Kentucky’s such an allergy-prone area,” she said. “The first time my husband used one, he was amazed. He said, ‘I can breathe right to the back of my head.”’

Dr. Beth Miller, chief of allergy and immunology at the University of Kentucky, said washing out the nasal passages with saline “can be very helpful” for allergy and sinus sufferers, regardless of whether it’s delivered via a neti pot, special syringe or nasal spray.

The McKnights’ neti pots are produced by small companies that Narial Nasal Cups contracts with.

The plastic cups, which the company sells for $14.95, are made at a factory in Indiana.

The ceramic version, which sells for $19.95, is handmade in Florida. The couple hope to add a ceramic producer in Kentucky eventually.

Richard Knittel, a retired chiropractor from Versailles, said he developed the handleless design for Narial Nasal Cups in about 1990 for his colleague, the late David Kuhns.

“He found it uncomfortable to use,” Knittel said of an earlier design Kuhns was using. “It’s just a simple modification of the neti pot.”

The chiropractors co-owned the company until Kuhns died and Knittel retired and decided to sell it.

The McKnights, who also own Office Centre Plus, had been providing shipping services for the neti pots for Mike Nemastil, who bought the company from Knittel.

When Nemastil, also a chiropractor, offered to sell the McKnights the company 3 ½ years ago, the decision to buy was a no-brainer, Warren McKnight said.

“I knew how much (business) he was doing,” he said. “It took about two seconds to say yes.”

Besides, Warren McKnight said, he was sold on the product.

Nemastil had given him a neti pot when he began handling the shipping, and McKnight said he soon stopped getting sinus infections.

“It worked,” he said. “We were so impressed, we bought the company.”

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)