St.John's Wort, can I eat the flowrs/plants?

Gamumuht

Hello,

I bought some St.John's Wort seeds, I bought them to help attract bee's to the Garden and to make some St.John's Wort tea.


The question is:
- How do you know which St.John's Wort is able to be ingested?. Because most of them are, but some like the berries are toxic to you.

Any ideas please?.


Thank You.

zl1whqvjs75cdy

I don't know anything about gardening but I do know that St. John's Wort interferes with the mode of action of several medications (cholesterol lowering ones in particular I think). If you're on anything long term probably should check with your GP to be safe.

Gamumuht

Hello,

Thank you your reply,

I am not taking any medication and have read many St.John's Wort interactions with both medications and diseases and I am fine regarding that.

But my question is, is certain plant itself OK to use?.

Thank you.

Morag

There are aspects to st John wort which is why it was made illegal as a herbal remedy, growing and tending it is also a legal grey area.

mikom

Morag wrote: »

growing and tending it is also a legal grey area.

If by grey you mean totally legal.
It grows on woodland edges and roadsides throughout Ireland and is not covered under the Noxious Weeds Act.

Morag

Which is why I said tending.

mikom

It is totally legal to tend it.

lazybones32

Gamumuht wrote: »

Hello,

I bought some St.John's Wort seeds, I bought them to help attract bee's to the Garden and to make some St.John's Wort tea.


The question is:
- How do you know which St.John's Wort is able to be ingested?. Because most of them are, but some like the berries are toxic to you.

Any ideas please?.


Thank You.

Used mainly as a cure for depression, I think the oil is extracted from the leaves or the leaves are added to a tea.
It is perfectly legal to own, propagate and cultivate hypericum species in Ireland but you should Google the correct method for distilling the tea/oil, since I don't know how.

Day Lewin

As far as I know, the extraction of a medical grade substance from Hypericum Perforatum is a specialised art and NOT able to be done by amateurs at home (I looked it up about fifteen years ago when I wanted to make a home version of the depression treatment)

- You would have to be sure and choose the correct variety - yes, lots of forms grow wild in Ireland but they aren't all the same medicinally
- you would have to extract at the correct temperature and pressure, or else risk some toxic properties being present - there ARE toxins in it - this is a pharmaceutically active plant
- Hypericum contains chemicals that are light-sensitive and can make your skin light-sensitive and irritated - and also interfere with uptake of medicines as another poster pointed out.

- in other words, you need the advice of a qualified herbalist and should proceed very cautiously, if at all, with ingestion. It is not an "inert" herb.

magicbastarder

one of the medicines it interferes with is the contraceptive pill. so it is probably responsible for unplanned pregnancy.

Day Lewin

@magicbastarder - LOL - is that how you got your nickname?

-I've read exhaustively about Hypericum and never came across that as a side-effect...though of course prudence is always advisable ;-)

magicbastarder

i'm fairly sure i read about the effect on the pill in a ben goldacre book; probably 'bad science'; but a quick google seems to bear that up, e.g.

http://www.fda.gov/downloads/scienceresearch/specialtopics/womenshealthresearch/ucm248342.pdf

and

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-26626499

Day Lewin

Fair enough - an added risk - maybe

A home-brew of the flowers/leaves might not be as strong, but there again, it might be stronger! or mildly toxic in other ways - like I said, extreme caution advisable here.