St. John's Wort | A Summer's Solace

St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum) has been used in herbal medicine since ancient times. Originally native to Europe, the herb was brought to North America in the 1700s where it was grown in gardens for both its beauty and its medicinal use. Long since escaped from the early apothecary gardens, St. John’s Wort can now be found growing wild in abundance throughout the continent. 

Herbal sunshine

St. John’s Wort truly lights up the garden with its golden-yellow clusters of star-shaped flowers. The flowers begin to open around the Summer Solstice and bloom throughout the summer months. In the wild, St. John’s wort tends to grow where the soil has been depleted or the earth wounded. You’ll find the strikingly golden flowers along dusty logging roads, sun-baked gravel pits, abandoned clearings, and other such wastelands. 

Sunny St. John’s Wort with its arms outstretched in bloom.

St. John’s Wort brings a light and vitality, an intense brightness like that of the sun on Summer Solstice. It brings its light to the most barren and worn-out patches of earth, the depleted, cast-aside, and forgotten places. The upright plants have branching stems like arms stretched outward bolding saying hello…

’Sit with me here amongst my golden flowers. Feel how I shine outward from where I stand, here in my power. I offer you healing, lightness, and strength. My dark crimson pigment is a primal reminder; the colour of the blood that flows within your veins. Let me help you find your vitality; your power, your light.’

A patch of brilliantly-shinning St. John’s Wort flowers.

The bright yellow flowers, when steeped in alcohol turn the menstruum a deep vibrant red; the colour of blood. The medicine seems to contain a vitality, a 'life blood', that brings us strength and uplifts us. Infused with the lightness and warmth of the sun, St. John's Wort can help pull us out of melancholy grey spaces, or dreary blues.


St. John’s Wort in the apothecary 

Prized for its medicinal uses for millennia, St. John’s Wort is a herb that is a veritable medicine chest of medicinal properties all on its own. With its equally potent antiviral, antidepressant, nervine, anti-inflammatory, alterative, astringent, analgesic and vulnerary actions, St. John’s wort can be applied as a therapy for an incredibly wide range of imbalances including anxiety, depression, seasonal affective disorder, hormonal imbalances, nerve pain, inflammation, viral infections, wounds and burns. 

St. John’s Wort is a fantastic nerve tonic, that is both enlivening and calming. It normalizes nerve function, acting to bring sensation to dulled nerves, and providing pain relief to oversensitive or inflamed nerve endings. 

Our Nerve Nourisher Blend is our most popular tincture, and a personal favourite, it can be found in our shop here.

For ‘frayed’ nerves and general nervous system support St. John’s Wort combines especially well with Milky Oat. You can find the two latter herbs along with Chamomile (M. chamomillia), Skullcap (S. lateriflora), Rose (R. nutkana) in our very popular Nerve Nourisher Tincture Blend. 

St. John’s Wort Tincture and the tea can be taken internally for restoring the nerves, and both the liniment and the infused oil can be also be applied topically with great benefit. St. John's Wort is probably my number one herb to recommend for body oiling (learn more about body oiling in my article 3 Herbal Therapies for Anxiety & Overwhelm).

The nervous system itself is primarily composed of fats and oils, and it can be directly nourished by the application of oils which are absorbed into the nerve endings through the skin.

Our St. John’s Wort Oil is available in our shop here. Note ~ our oil is made in small batches and it is only available seasonally. The oil comes back in stock each July.

There is something very magical about rubbing this crimson oil upon the body. Not only does it nourish, calm, and ground the spirit, but its magic also relates to energetic protection. The skin is a barrier between us and the world. It is a protective, yet permeable, layer between the inner and the outer. Applying oil to the skin can act as a ritual to strengthen this energetic boundary, allowing us to contain and restore the inner light within.

As a nerve tonic, St. John’s Wort is useful for anxiety, nervous excitability, neuralgia, and sciatica. It calms and restores healthy function to nerves, and has a specific affinity to the main bladder nerve. It is a favourite remedy for ‘nervous bladder’.

It is interesting that the kidneys and bladder are associated with the emotion of fear, for me this seems fitting with the medicine of St. John’s Wort. An aspect of the herbs spirit medicine is its ability to fill us with light, banishing fear and darkness.

As a tonic for the kidneys and bladder St. John’s Wort combines well with many other herbs. We have formulated it with Arbutus (A. menziesii), Yarrow (A. millifolium) Goldenrod (S. lepida), and Giant Horsetail (E. telmateia) to create our Bladder Benefit Tincture Blend; great as a strengthening tonic and for treating UTIs.

Bladder Benefit Tincture blend is available in our online store here.

St. John’s Wort’s value as an antidepressant is probably its most well-known application. Well studied in recent years, the herb has been proven through modern clinical trials to be effective at treating general depression. Though diet and lifestyle are key when it comes to shifting mental and physical states and promoting well-being, herbs can be absolutely indispensable for supporting those shifts.

The tincture of St. John’s Wort when taken regularly for as little as a couple weeks, or months, can be so incredibly helpful for lifting us out of melancholic states like the winter blues, ‘summer bummers’, or a sense of grief that hangs out past the point of usefulness. The herb acts to increase serotonin levels and restores the sense of contentment and well-being.

A soothing balm to the soul, St. John’s Wort lifts the mind onto a golden cloud, enlivens the blood, and nourishes the nerves. We have St. John’s Wort Tincture available in the shop in 50ml, 100ml, 250ml, and 500ml sizes.

Light Weaver Tincture is our favourite uplifting and mood-enhancing blend.

Formulated to be uplifting, mood enhancing, and slightly psychotropic, our Light Weaver Tincture Blend aids in bringing a light shift of metal perspective and with it a sense of contentment and connection. This blend combines St. John’s wort with Wild Dagga (L.nepetafolia) Lemon Balm (M. officinalis), Passionflower (P. incarnata), Arbutus (A. menziesii), with a hint of Western Red Cedar (T. plicata).

Our Trauma Remedy Tincture can be found in our shop here.

Our Trauma Remedy Tincture Blend formulates St. John’s Wort with other grounding nervines Wood Betony (Stachys officinalis), Motherwort (L. cardiaca), Yarrow (A. millifolium), and Elderflower (S. racemosa), to create a calming and soothing blend for acute periods of trauma, stress, and anxiety. 

St. John’s Wort has a gentle action on the liver and increases detoxification of excess estrogens from the body. Combined with its nervine, antidepressant, and anti-inflammatory actions, the herb can be very useful for relieving uncomfortable symptoms of PMS and regulating menstruation.

It is important to note that because of this detoxifying action through the liver, St. John’s Wort can render birth control pills ineffective. It is also contraindicated with many pharmaceutical medications. For those on meds it is best to consult a professional health practitioner before taking the herb.

A fresh batch of our St. John’s Wort Salve is stocked up in the shop here.

Another chief application of St. John’s Wort is as an important antiviral, both internally and externally. It is especially helpful for Herpes virus infections such as chicken pox, shingles, cold sores, genital herpes. St. John’s Wort Infused Oil and Salve is often very successful at relieving tingling and burning that is associated with these viruses. 

Applied at the first signs of a flare-up, the topical application of St. John’s Wort Salve, Oil, or Liniment may prevent the sores from breaking out. Internal use of the tincture is also very helpful for treatment and prevention of viral infections. It’s potent antiviral action combines very well with its nervine action for the management of shingles, a virus which emerges along the nerve endings.

Our Eczema Remedy Salve is available in the shop here.

St. John’s Wort is one of our best anti-inflammatory herbs and is a main ingredient in our Eczema Remedy Salve Blend. Astringent and antimicrobial, the herb is great for wound healing and sunburns. It combines well with Poplar Bud (P. balsamifera) and Wild Bergamot (M. fistulosa) in our Burn Remedy Salve Blend, wonderful to have on hand in the summer first aid kit.

Harvesting

St. John's Wort can be identified by the appearance of tiny pin-prick holes in its leaves which can be seen when held up against the sky. These transparent glands in the leaves give them a perforated appearance, hence the species name 'perforatum'. 

St. John’s Wort has translucent dots that can be seen when a leaf is held up to the light. Note that there are also separate black resin dots as well.

Another sure-fire way to identify St. John's Wort is by the pigment it exudes. If you squeeze the golden five petaled flowers between your fingers you will see a deep reddish-purple substance exude. Note that the unopened flower buds tend to have the most of this substance. 

St. John’s Wor flower buds when squeezed expel a deep wine-coloured liquid.

Bloom time is normally in full swing by late-June or early-July here in the PNW, and will often continue into August depending on the weather. The flowering tops are best harvested just as the first blooms have begun to open and the majority of the flowers are still enclosed in large swollen buds. 

It is common for there to be some finished flowers, some freshly opened flowers, and some closed buds together on the tops at any given time. Just collect up the whole lot by clipping the tops of the plants in flower. Usually this is the top 3 or 4 inches. There is no need to harvest the flowers individually, use the whole flowering tops for medicine making ~ including the small stems and leaves attached bellow the flowers. 

The freshly harvested flowering tops of St. John’s Wort.

Though the leaves do not contain much of the red pigment known to be responsible for a wide range of the medicinal actions, they contain other medicinal properties, such as astringency, which adds nicely to make a well-rounded whole-plant medicine. So it is fine to include a bit of leaf and stem but the bulk of the harvest should be the flower clusters, ideally in the late-bud or early-flower stage.

Our beautiful Kaiya posing next to a tall patch of wild St. John’s Wort last July.

Medicine Making

A good quality finished St John’s Wort tincture should be a deep-dark blood-red colour. If well extracted, it should be so full of pigment that the extract is no longer transparent in the jar. To achieve this incredible colour, the plant must be tinctured fresh. The dried plant does not extract very well into alcohol. 

For the best extraction, high proof alcohol is needed. Ethanol anywhere above 75% will give you a very nice extract that includes all of the aromatic and resinous notes. Don’t bother using 40% vodka and ‘folking it’. 40% won’t pull out the complex range of constituents, not only will it be a weaker extract, the medicine just won’t be there. Once you get some experience your taste buds will tell you so.

The infused oil is best made with the fresh or wilted herb. Just like with the tincture, you won’t get a good extract, and that gorgeous blood-red colour, if you use dried herb. My preference is to use the wilted herb, this reduces the amount of water (from the plant juices) that is added to the oil. This improves the extraction of the herb into the oil, helps reduce the chance of spoilage from bacterial growth, and increases the shelf-life of the finished oil. 

The beautiful deep-crimson colour of our finished St. John’s Wort Oil.

I wilt the herb for about 3-5 days until a good portion of the moisture is gone from the plant but it hasn’t had a chance to become completely dry. At this stage I grind up the herb coarsely in a blender or food processor.  Oil is then poured over the herb in a glass jar. My preference is to use stable oils such as olive oil, or coconut oil.

The herb is best steeped in the oil with continuous gentle warmth for 5-7 days. When using the wilted or almost-dry herb the oil sometimes turns red instantly, or sometimes it takes a few days of warmth to fully come through. Be patient. About the time you’ve given up and thought that you’ve done it wrong, the oil will gradually turn that deep dark crimson red.

St. John’s Wort makes a wonderful tea, and contrary to the oil and alcohol extractions, the dried herb is fantastic for this purpose. The tops are easy to gather and dry for later use, and create a wonderful deep rose-red coloured infusion with a berry-like, and somewhat balsamic or resinous flavour. 

I love drinking St. John’s Wort tea through the winter months and always dry and store lots for this purpose. It is such a great ally for the winter blues or seasonal affective disorder (know to many herbalists and gardeners as ‘I miss the plants so much syndrome’). The dried herb should be used within a year and replaced each season with a fresh harvest.

St. John’s Wort infused honey is available in our shop here. Or see recipe at the end of the post to make your own :)

St. John’s Wort also extracts very well into honey! And lends its blood red colour wonderfully to the sweet menstruum. St. John’s Wort honey can be taken by the spoonful as a medicine, or used in your culinary delights. To learn how to make your own infused honey please see recipe at the end of this post.

St. John’s Wort in the garden

Grown in good garden soil the plants will grow to about 3ft high or so, where as in the wild they can often be as short as 1ft in very arid growing conditions. The plants aren’t fussy, but prefer at least a half day of sun and well-drained soil that does not become water-logged during our soggy winters on the coast. 

Tiny St. John’s wort seedlings.

St. John’s Wort slowly spreads to form a clump by the natural layering habit of its lower foliage. I does not spread very vigorously in this manner though, and will not become invasive in the garden unless is left to go to seed. As long as you are harvesting the flowers for medicine each season the plants will be prevented from seeding. Though very easy to manage in the garden, St. John’s Wort can become quite invasive if left to go to seed in farmers fields and other large cleared or disturbed areas.

Since the plants are slow to spread, to get a good patch going in the garden, you’ll want to plant many plants 6”-1ft apart to form a nice dense patch. Only the flowering tops are harvested, so I would recommend planting around a dozen plants to have enough for your personal supplies for the year, or more if you wish to share the medicine with others. 

St. John’s Wort seeds can be started through out the growing season, and are available in our shop here.

St. John’s Wort can be propagated from cuttings or Seed. The seeds may be fall-sown directly in place, or started in spring either directly in the garden or indoors in flats and then transplanted out. The seeds shouldn’t be buried, rather just lightly raked or pressed into the soil. The seedlings can sometimes take up to 4 or 5 weeks to sprout, and are very very tiny when they first emerge, but then grow rapidly to become plants often up to 1ft high in the first season. By the second growing season you will be able to begin harvesting your first flowers. 

A little copper-coloured beetle likes to live on St. John’s Wort and will defoliate the plants and eventually kill them in bad years. I’ve noticed that the beetles have become more plentiful and aggressive over the last few years. If you see the beetles it is best to collect them up and dispose of them.

A Chysolina beetle. These small copper-coloured beetles are very shiny and pretty but when they gather in numbers, they can do a lot of damage to your favourite St. John’s Wort patch.

These Chrysolina beetles (Chrysolina spp), also simply called St. John’s Wort beetles, were introduced to North America from Europe to control the spread of St. John’s Wort in livestock grazing fields. St. John's wort contains a chemical that causes grazing animals, especially cows, to become sensitive to sunlight resulting in skin irritation or sunburn.

There have also been a few cases of photosensitivity from St. John’s Wort ingestion in humans, but it is extremely rare. For individuals that are known to have conditions which make them hyper-sensitive to the sun, it is best to avoid taking large doses of St. John’s Wort before heading out under that great fiery orb.

A note on other species

There are over 500 species of Hypericum all of which may go by the common name ‘St. John’s Wort’. Not all species are medicinal. Many species are grown as ornamentals and there are different cultivars and hybrids created for this purpose. There is often some confusion regarding which is the medicinal species.

The ground cover known as Creeping St. John’s Wort (Hypericum calycinum) is decidedly not a medicine plant. This species is a very common and vigorous ground cover used in landscaping. It grows from about 6-12” high with very large showy yellow flowers that are 2-3 inches in diameter. Creeping St. John’s Wort does not contain the medicinal red pigment in its flower buds.

Creeping St. John’s Wort (Hypericum calycinum) is not used medicinally, and does not appear to have any medicinal value.

We have two species of Hypericum native to Vancouver Island and areas of the PNW. Western St. John’s Wort (Hypericum formosum) can be used interchangeably with H. perforatum. It is very similar in appearance to the latter except that this native species has more oval-shaped leaves and a smaller bushier habit. Western St. John’s Wort also lacks the translucent ‘perforations’ in the leaves. 

We offer seeds of Western St. John’s Wort in our shop here.

Western St. John’s Wort (H. formosa) at first glance looks pretty much the same as Common St. John’s Wort (H. perforatum). To tell them apart hold a leaf up to the sun. If it lacks the translucent dots you’ve found H. formosa. The two species may be used interchangeably for medical use.

The other native species in the area is Bog St. John’s Wort (Hypericum anagalloides). It is a very tiny plant, often only a few inches tall, with rounded leaves and single terminal flowers. It is pretty common in bogs, near wetlands, and wet ditches. I often find this species growing along lake sides on northern Vancouver Island. I am not sure if it is very medicinal. It is very tiny so would be difficult to harvest any significant quantity.

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St. John’s Wort Infused Honey Recipe

1 part fresh St. John’s Wort flowering tops
5 parts raw unpasteurized honey

Fresh St. John’s Wort flowers infusing in honey. With a bit of warmth they will begin to turn the honey the a deep wine colour.

1) Collect the fresh herb and chop finely. (Note that the herb has to be fresh for this recipe, do not use wilted or dried).

2) Weigh your herb and place in a large metal or glass bowl.

3) Pour 5 parts raw raw unpasteurized honey over the herb in the bowl. (Add 500mls of honey for every 100grams of herb).

3) Place the bowl on a double boiler and gently warm off and on for a few days (try for 3 or 4 hrs each day). Be very careful to not over heat the honey past 60C to retain its raw properties. The water in the double boiler should be hot but not boiling.

4) Keep the lid off the honey mixture and stir several times a day while heating.

5) Once your S. John’s Wort honey is a deep red colour and no longer runny at room temperature it is time to strain it. While hot, pour the honey mixture through a wire mesh strainer and press out. Your infused honey is now ready to enjoy.