St-Johns-Wort

“St John's wort, scaring from the midnight heath,
the witch and goblin with its spicy breath.”

An old saying

Hypericum has about 400 different species (ranging from small shrubs to trees) the most famous being Hypericum perforatum the St Johns Wort that many herbalists recommend for depression and scientific research seems to throw some weight behind this recommendation.

The name ‘St Johns Wort’ comes from the plant flowering around the time of St John the Baptist's feast day 24th June which is also midsummer and the Celts were said to use the plant in their solstice ceremonies. When flowers are steeped in oil it turns blood red and is often called St John's blood.

The word 'hypericum' is derived from the Greek meaning ‘best health.’

St Johns wort has been used medicinally for hundreds of years, we first know of it as a charm against witches, evil fairies and the like.

Culpepper finds St Johns Wort to be a remedy for many ills....

“It is a singular wound herb; boiled in wine and drank, it healeth inward hurts or bruises; made into ann ointment, it opens obstructions, dissolves swellings, and closes up the lips of wounds. The decoction of the herb and flowers, especially of the seed, being drank in wine, with the juice of knot-grass, helpeth all manner of vomiting and spitting of blood, is good for those that are bitten or stung by any venomous creature, and for those that cannot make water. two drachms of the seed of St. Johns Wort made into powder, and drank in a littIe broth, doth gently expel choler or congealed blood in the stomach. The decoction of the leaves and seeds drank somewhat warm before the fits of agnes, whether they be tertians or quartans, alters the fits, and, by often using, doth take them quite away. The seed is much commended, being drunk for forty days together, to help the sciatica, the falling-sickness, and the palsy.”

Other names include; Klamath weed, goat weed, tipton weed, amber weed.