Beware the Contradictions: St. John's Wort Usage Explained

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction
2. Disclaimers
3. The Chemical Constituents of St. John's Wort
4. Contraindications of St. John's Wort
5. Identifying St. John's Wort in the Wild
6. The Etymology of St. John's Wort
7. Historical Uses and Folklore
8. Modern Uses of St. John's Wort
9. Using St. John's Wort Topically
10. Conclusion

Introduction

Hey, my name is Jesse Akozbek. I am here in my backyard in North Alabama right now, and you guessed it, this article is all about St. John's Wort. Let's talk about it.

Disclaimers

Now before I say anything else about this plant, I have to give you two very important disclaimers. Number one, I am not a medical practitioner or master herbalist. All of the information in this article is strictly educational, and you are ultimately responsible for anything that you do with any plant that you find. Okay, next is a very important one, specifically for St. John's Wort. Now it would be entirely irresponsible for me to not share this information with you before we talk further about any uses of this plant whatsoever because there are a lot of contraindications for St. John's Wort. In fact, St. John's Wort might be the most contraindicated herb of any that you will ever discover. This is the case because of a principal chemical constituent in St. John's Wort called hyperforin.

The Chemical Constituents of St. John's Wort

Now what hyperforin does is it binds to xenobiotic receptors in your cells. And xenobiotic receptors are just responsible for dealing with any foreign chemicals or agents in your body. So it binds to these cells and it turns on the genes that are responsible for drug metabolism. Essentially, it makes them super powerful at metabolizing drugs in your body. Now, this can be very problematic if it's interacting with drugs that you are taking because essentially what it does is it makes your body stronger at breaking down those drugs. Now anything that your body's breaking down, it's not actually using. And a lot of times, they dose these drugs very specifically for a certain effective dose. And if your body's breaking down far more of the drug than it normally would, well now you've taken far less than an effective dose of that drug. The thing about St. John's Wort is that it affects such a wide variety of drugs. Some of the most dangerous drugs that it affects are for heart medicine, birth control, and immunosuppression. But those aren't the only ones that it affects. In reality, St. John's Wort affects about half of all human-made drugs that are in your body and it is entirely imperative that you know this before continuing because if there are any drugs that you might be taking, chances are St. John's Wort is going to interact with them and nullify them. So be sure to speak with a medical professional before you start using St. John's Wort, especially if you're doing so internally.

Identifying St. John's Wort in the Wild

Now that we have covered that disclaimer, we can start to get into the fun stuff. Before we do that, though, we want to make sure that we can identify it properly out in the wild. Let's go do that right now. (birds tweet) Okay, here it is. I'm very lucky to have this plant in my backyard. Now when people think of St. John's Wort, most often they associate it with Europe. That would be Hypericum perforatum. But there are many species that are native to North America, and this is one of them. It also produces the iconic red oil that we'll talk about a little bit later. This one's name is Hypericum punctatum. Actually, we haven't talked about the name too much. We should probably do that. Let's do it really quick. We'll start with the etymology of its Latin name, specifically the genus, Hypericum.

The Etymology of St. John's Wort

Now it comes from a combination of two words, hyper and eikon. Hyper just means above, and eikon is referring to religious paintings or icons. And this comes from one of the traditional uses or folklore of the plant, which was that it was hung above religious figures because it was thought to repel evil spirits. Now does St. John's Wort actually repel evil spirits? We'll find out about that in just a bit. When we go to the name St. John's Wort, the common name, there are two different possible sources that I have found. The first one comes with the flower blooming around the time of St. John's Day, June 24th. And then the other source that I've found comes from the 16th century, a Swiss physician named Paracelsus, who associated blood red oil with John the Baptist and his sacrifice. Whichever source that we use, you're probably calling this plant St. John's Wort. If you have another name that you call it, I would love to hear what that is. I love names and I love etymology. Please let me know in the comments below.

Historical Uses and Folklore

Now that we know a little bit more about the name and where it comes from, let's go back to the plant and look more into that identification so we can make sure that we can positively identify it in the wild. Now the first and probably most interesting identification point for this plant comes from the leaves. So if I take one and I look at it through light, I'll see a bunch of these tiny dots in the leaf. This an indication of another one of the principle chemical constituents in this plant, hypericin. There are over 490 species in the genus Hypericum, but the uses that I'll be talking about in this article are specific to the red oil-producing plants. The red oil-producing plants come from hypericin, and those are this one, right here, punctatum, and then also perforatum. So not only are the dots in this leaf an indication of the medicine, the presence of hypericin, but it's also a really fantastic identification point. What I can do to see the redness that comes from it is I can either take the leaf and rub my hands over them, and I'll start to see some of that color come through. Or to get a lot more color, I can take the flowers and I'll rub them in my hand, and you will see that it starts to dye them that red color. Further, the flowers have five yellow petals. The leaves are simple and they are opposite, and it grows to be about a foot to two feet tall.

Modern Uses of St. John's Wort

Now that we know how to identify this plant in the wild, let's talk about uses and history, two of my favorite subjects. Now one of the really cool things about this plant is that its history of use goes back a really, really long time ago. I've found mention of its use all the way back to the sixth century BC. But one of the most common sources that I see early on came from Pliny the Elder and his "Naturalis Historia", in the first century AD. Because of its really long history of use, there is so much folklore and history and use to explore with this plant, and I'm really only gonna be scratching the surface in this article, but I'm gonna talk about some of the things that I find most important and most interesting.

Now when researching this plant, I generally have to divide up my sources into two different categories. One are sources from modern times, that's in the last 30 years or so, which are almost exclusively about its use as an SSRI, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. That would be its efficacy against mild to moderate depression. Or what we talked about before with its interaction with modern, human-made drugs. Now let's talk about that mild to moderate depression, just a little bit. Now it seems that its action as a mild to moderate antidepressive is in that SSRI, selective serotonin reuptake inhibition, which essentially allows there to be more serotonin in your body for you to use. But it might not be extremely selective because it also seems to inhibit the reuptake of neurochemicals like dopamine, GABA, and L-glutamate. Nonetheless, this is probably one of the most common uses known for St. John's Wort. However, we have to go back to the older sources to see some of the topical uses of it, and this is where I think the plant really, really shines. All the way back to the 11th century AD, the Knights Hospitaller, the Order of Knights of the Hospital St. John of Jerusalem, used an oil infusion of this plant profusely, and the reason was that it is very effective in deep cuts and lacerations. And you have to imagine that this was a time where battles were fought with swords and blades, so deep cuts and lacerations were a very common thing that they had to deal with. The oil they used had a name. It was called Oleum Hyperici, and it was sold all around Europe. Very, very widely and prolifically used. Not only is it useful for things like deep cuts and lacerations, but also for muscle pain and soreness, and pain down and along the spine. This is where I think the plant really, really shines, and not a lot of people know about it.

Using St. John's Wort Topically

Now there's another historical use of the plant that I alluded to before, and that is to repel evil spirits. Again, does it actually repel evil spirits? Well, what are evil spirits in this context? Let's go back to a time when they didn't have terms for things that we would refer to today as depression or manic depressive disorder. Maybe they might call something like that an evil spirit and say that someone is possessed by an evil spirit. So if we go back to that and we look at it in that context, now we can compare an old folkloric use of the plant with a modern, scientifically-backed use and link them together. And I think that that is really, really cool.

So how do I use this plant? Well, very rarely if ever do I take it internally for all those contraindications that we mentioned before. However, I really like to use it topically. If I've been working out a lot and I've developed muscle soreness or if I've been sitting too much at work and my neck and back start to hurt, if I've been really stressed and my jaw starts to tighten up and get locked up, then I'll simply apply the oil to the affected areas, and I find a lot of really wonderful pain relief.

Conclusion

In conclusion, St. John's Wort is a fascinating plant with a long history of use and a wide range of applications. It is important to be aware of its contraindications and potential drug interactions before using it internally. However, its topical use for pain relief and wound healing has been well-documented throughout history. Whether you choose to explore its traditional folklore or its modern applications as an antidepressant, St. John's Wort offers a wealth of possibilities. So next time you come across this beautiful plant in the wild, take a moment to appreciate its historical significance and consider how it may benefit you in your own health and wellness journey.