St. Johns Wort

Overview :

Hypericum perforatum is the most medicinally important species of the Hypericum genus, commonly known as St. John's wort. There are as many as 400 species in the genus, which is part of the Guttiferae family. Native to Europe, St. John's wort is found throughout the world. It thrives in sunny fields, open woods, and gravelly roadsides. Early colonists brought this valuable medicinal to North America, and the plant has become naturalized in the eastern United States and California, as well as in Australia, New Zealand, eastern Asia, and South America.

The entire plant, particularly the round, black seed, exudes a slight, turpentine-like odor. The woody, branched root spreads from the base with runners that produce numerous stalks. The simple, dark green leaves are veined and grow in opposite, oblong-obvate pairs on round, branching stalks that reach 3 ft (91.4 cm) high. Tiny holes, visible when the leaf is held to the light, are actually transparent oil glands containing the chemical photo sensitizer known as hypericin. These characteristic holes inspired the species name, perforatum, Latin for perforated. The bright yellow, star-shaped flowers, often clustered in a trio, have five petals. Each blossom has many showy stamens. Black dots along the margins of the blossom contain more of the red-pigmented chemical hypericin. The herb is also useful as a dye. The flowers bloom in branching, flat-topped clusters atop the stalks in mid-summer, around the time of the summer solstice. St. John's wort, sometimes called devil's flight or grace of God, was believed to have magical properties to ward off evil spirits. It's generic name hypericum is derived from a Greek word meaning over an apparition. The herb was traditionally gathered on mid-summer's eve, June 23. This date was later christianized as the eve of the feast day of St. John the Baptist. This folk custom gave the plant its popular name. The Anglo-Saxon word wort means medicinal herb.