WELCOME TO DR. BILL'S SITE.
St. John's Wort
A textbook by Kathleen Gutierrez(Pharmacotherapeutics - Clinical Decision- Making in Nursing. W.B. Saunders Co.1999,Chapter 60 pages 1254-1271) contains information on dosage regimens for herbal remedies. On page 1259 (Table60-2) Dosage for St John's Wort listed as:
Adult: 300 mg of the herb standardized to 0.3 percent hypericin taken by mouth three times daily or 40-80 drops of tincture three times daily or 1-2 heaping teaspoons of dried herb per cup of water taken twice daily.
Under implications, the author states: Avoid concurrent use with opiods, amphetamines, over-the-counter cold and flu preparations. Several weeks may pass before improvement is noted.
Dr. Bill has attempted to take the reader through these several pages on St. John's Wort to show:
1)The chemicals found in this herb;
2)The apparent most active ingredients - hypericin and maybe pseudohypericin; 3)The uses - with major focus as antidepressant/sedative - and doses recommended.
At this point I would like to focus on another point presented in the www.teleport.com/~dburch/june.html site presented in my previous page. The point made by the authors at this site - under Action/Effects - states:"Antidepressant/Sedative -Initially thought to be due to the hypericin, but it is now known that the biflavones and hyperforin are involved."
They also state:"Experimental studies have shown that St. John's Wort MAY have monoamine oxidase inhibition activity and also that it exhibits serotonin reuptake inhibition."
Dr. Bill would like to point out to the reader that we now have a couple of conflicing reports: one states that St. John's Wort inhibits MONOAMINE OXIDASE (MAO); and another states it MAY inhibit MAO.
In addition, we now have another player on the scene - namely HYPERFORIN and biflavones.
Ah! the perplexing world of herbals rears its head again. Check back again.