St. John’s Wort

St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum) is a bushy perennial with yellow flowers, which blooms around St. John the Baptist’s day in June. It has been used for many centuries in traditional European medicines.

References to the use of St. John’s wort can be found in the last 2,000 years, dating back to the early Greeks. For centuries people have successfully used St. John’s Wort for the treatment of ailments such as depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, viral infections, wounds, menstrual cramping and kidney and lung ailments.

In folk and traditional systems of medicine, various species of Hypericum have been used orally to treat anxiety, bedwetting, dyspepsia, excitability, exhaustion, fibrositis, gastritis, gout, hemorrhage, pulmonary complaints, rheumatism, sciatica and swelling.