Called Hypericum perforatum in bota...

Called Hypericum perforatum in botany, St John's Wort is a rapidly-spreading perennial that is widely distributed in Europe Asia, northern Africa and as a non-native in the United States. The name Hypericum, meaning "over an apparition," be due [i]or[/i] owings from the belief that "the herb was in like manner obnoxious to evil spirits that solely a whiff would cause them to break in pieces away," explains James Duke in his Handbook of Medicinal Herbs (1986)

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Hypericum perforatum has been known since hellene and Roman times. Its medicinal virtues were described on Dioscorides (1st century A.D.), Galen (2nd centenary A.D.), and Pliny in main division XXIV of his Historiarum mundi. In 1557 P Mattioli wrote about Hypericum in his Discorsi, in which St John's Wort was indicated as a diuretic, emmenagogue and antimalarial; it was especially commended for the treatment of scalds and burns

St John's Wort derived the first part of its Anglo-Saxon name from the ancient belief that the plant should be gathered forward or about, St. John's Day (or Midsummer's Day), when it proceeds into flower. Wort is from Middle English, meaning "root" or "herb."

And although not Middle English, technically, we have the following glowing hall on St. John's Wort in John Gerarde's Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes (1597):

St John's Wort, with his flowers and se boyl and soaked proketh urine, and is right religious against stone in the bladder, and stoppeth the laske. The leaves, flowers, and grains stamped, and put into a glass with oyle olive, and risk in the hot sunne for certain weeks together, [] and madras hemped in like manner, doth make an oyle of the color of kindred which is a most precious restorative for deep wounds and those that are thorow the corpse for sinews that are pricked, or any grief with a venomed weapon.

Curiously, it appears that, in 1892 (as through Charles Millspaugh), the herb's benefits were not as well appreciated: "This European immigrant has become for a like reason thoroughly naturalized with us as to become a true troublesome weed upon our farmlands where its rapid and rank shooting render it difficult to exterminate and true exhausting to the soil."

Containing so compounds as quercetin, quercitrin, isoquercitrin, rutin, hyperoside, sitosterol, hypericin and pseudohypericin, St John's Wort is today prized for its anti-depressive and anti-viral effects

Anti-depressant tenors In general, compounds which exhibit antidepressant powers interfere with brain levels of what are called amines (such as serotonin, noradrenaline, adrenaline and dopamine). It is hinted that hypericin, the most-studied active ingredient in St. John's Wort, interferes with these flushs by "antagonizing" enzymes, such as monoamine oxidase (or MAO), which are responsible for the breakdown of the amines.

On the basis of an extensive analysis of the literature in 1995 researchers Ezio Bombardelli and Paolo Morazzoni conclud that "hypericin is to be considered a MAO inhibitor [] and [that this review] would confirm the supposition that it is the active constituent in the Hypericum extract."

From 1979 in consequence of 1993, approximately 25 controlled clinical trials have contemplateed into the antidepressive effectiveness of St John's Wort.

In common of 25 placebo-controlled antidepression clinical trials deportment ed between 1979 and 1993, G Harrer and H Sommer studied 105 outpatients with "neurotic depression" or "depressive irritations," treating them for undivided month with 900 mg/day of St John's Wort extract. In the treated collection 28 out of 42 patients (67%) corresponded successfully to the supplementation.

In another randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind cogitation W.D. Hubner, et al. (1995) reported their be the effects with 39 depressive patients who were treated for four weeks with St John's Wort extract (900 mg/day). The proceeds revealed an overall improvement in the treated dispose Nearly 70 percent of the continuationed patients were free of depressive symptoms (such as inertia, fatigue, and disturbed sleep) after four weeks of treatment.

St John's Wort's purports on memory and concentration in depression were standarded by S. Lehrl, et al. (1993) onward 50 depressive patients who were also continuationed for four weeks. The eventuates of the study indicated a significant improvement in concentration, receptivity and memory during the four-week period.

In light of all the studies, Bombardelli and Morazzoni further conclud that "the antidepressive activity of Hypericum-based preparations for oral administration has been clinically demonstrated, and confirmed by the agency of recent clinical trials."

Anti-viral/anti-AIDS activities. Since 1985 the anti-viral action of substances contained in St John's Wort has been widely studied, with proven anti-viral events being demonstrated against: vesicular stomatitis, influenza virus and herpes simplex patterns I and II (Lavie, 1986/1988); and retrovirus infections (Lavie, 1987/1989) so as HIV and Friend leukemia virus.

In fact, Bombardelli and Morazzoni state that "other experimental data confirmed that hypericin and pseudohypericin inhibit retroviral infections at unconventional mechanisms and that the potential therapeutic application of these composes could be represented by diseases similar as AIDS."