Topical St. John's Wort preparations, such as oils or tinctures, are widely used as a traditional remedy for the treatment of minor wounds and burns, sunburns, abrasions, bruises, contusions, ulcers, myalgia, shingles and many others conditions. Pharmacological research supports the use in these fields and it was historically recorded as a treatment for anxiety by the ancient Greek physicians Pliny and Hippocrates(1)!
Traditional hypericum oil macerate (Hyperici oleum) is made from flowers, leaves, and buds. It is made by crushing the material and mixing it with edible plant oil, setting it in the sun and allowing it to ferment. After several weeks (or about 40 days), the extract becomes rusty red (an oxidation product of pseudohypericin). The finished finished oil is placed in amber (or dark coloured) bottles.
Recent research showed that it has antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli, Shigella dysenteriae, Salmonella typhi, Bacillus cereus, and Staphylococcus aureus(2). Another study demonstrated H. perforatum extracts and partitions had antibacterial activity against several oral bacteria including Streptococcus mutans, S. sobrinus, Lactobacillus plantarum, and Enterococcus faecalis (6).
McDowells use St Johns wort in formulations to help repair the nervous system specifically.
Used with mugwort, the combination is found in these formulations:
- Nerve Regeneration Mixes
- Brain Damage repair
- Shingles
- Stringhalt
- Depression
- Neuralgia
- Spinal Damage
REFERENCES
1. The Chemical and Antibacterial Evaluation of St. John's Wort Oil Macerates Used in Kosovar Traditional Medicine
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2017.01639/full
2. Heydarian, M., Jooyandeh, H., Nasehi, B., and Noshad, M. (2017). Characterization of Hypericum perforatum polysaccharides with antioxidant and antimicrobial activities: optimization based statistical modeling. Int. J. Biol. Macromol. 104(Pt A), 287–293. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2017.06.049
3. St. John’s Wort - Robert W. Coppock, Margitta Dziwenka, in Nutraceuticals, 2016
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/pharmacology-toxicology-and-pharmaceutical-science/hypericum
4. Antibacterial activity of hyperforin from St John's wort, against multiresistant Staphylococcus aureus and gram positive bacteria. The Lancet 353:2129. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(99)00214-7 Schempp, C. M., Pelz, K., Wittmer, A., Schöpf, E., and Simon, J. C. (1999).
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(99)00214-7/fulltext
6.Antimicrobial effect of the extracts from Hypericum perforatum against oral bacteria and biofilm formation.
Süntar I1, Oyardı O2, Akkol EK1, Ozçelik B2.
