365 Urban Species. #177: St. Johnswort

[urbpan]

Photos by cottonmanifesto. Location: Hillside of onramp between Jamaicaway and Perkin's street, Boston.

Urban species #177: St. Johnswort Hypericum perforatum

Much of the time during this project, I've been providing names to familiar plants of the city. Here I connect a familiar name to the plant. Most people have heard of St. John's Wort, the dietary supplement and herbal depression treatment. Here is the herb, an attractive if nondescript field weed, easily mistaken for goldenrod. It prefers sunny, well-drained areas; it does not compete well with other plants, but can be an effective colonizer of disturbed soils or recently burned areas.

St. Johnswort is a native of the Mediterranean, but has been brought around the world for its reputed herbal and magical properties. It was reputed to bloom on St. John's day--June 24th--and to repel evil spirits, witches (apparently this was Christian magic) and even lightning. These days the herb is used to repel depression; though one study emphasized that it is ineffective against major depression, it does seem to have an affect in treating minor to moderate cases. The active chemical, hypericin, has the side effect of making the patient sensitive to light. Livestock can also suffer from hypericin toxicity if they eat St. johnswort in pastures, developing sores on their faces. In the west, St. johnswort is considered a noxious weed because its presence contaminates forage crops in this way.

Comments

[phlogiston-5.livejournal.com]

I hadn't heard about the sensitivity to light as a side effect. I suppose that knocks it off my list as an herbal supplement since my skin hates the sun as it is. I have also heard that the active ingredient can interfere with the effectiveness of hormonal birth control in women.

Lovely picture!

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

The most frequently noted possible side effect is light sensitivity. Ranging cattle that feed on the plant have been known to get blisters on their hide and die of overexposure to the sun. In some clinical experiments, fair-skinned people in particular got sunburns after taking twice the usual amount of St. John's wort.
Anecdotally, World Wide Web bulletin boards discussing the herb are riddled with messages blaming it for unexpected sunburns. European health authorities and U.S. scientific bodies have issued clear warnings about the problem.

http://www.hypericum.com/articles/times.htm

[brush-rat.livejournal.com]

Nice, but you need to add a paragraph about John the Conqueroo. Any plant that gets mentioned in that many blues songs must have some serious mojo.

[aemiis-zoo.livejournal.com]

I tried taking St. John's wort for my depression. I didn't notice any appreciable improvement, of course I fall into that "major depressive disorder" category. I didn't have health insurance at the time, and my Rx was $120/month.