Weleda Hypericum (St Johns Wort) Mother tincture 100ml

Hypericum Mother Tincture, (St. John’s Wort) helps relieve mild to moderate depression. It can also be used for the ‘winter blues.’ It is safer, cheaper and just as effective as conventional anti-depressants, and is available over the counter.

Hypericum perforatum (St. John’s Wort) has a genuine anti-depressant medicinal action, and reduces anxiety. Its action is gentle yet very effective, with none of the usual anti-depressant side effects such as anxiety, weight loss, sleeplessness and loss of sexual desire.

It is predicted to replace conventional mild to moderate anti-depressants, and is the leading treatment for depression in Germany, where its sales outnumber Prozac 20 to one. In 1994, 66 million daily doses of Hypericum were prescribed there for use in the treatment of depression.*

WELEDA has manufactured Hypericum for depression for over 60 years. Weleda Hypericum (herba) Mother Tincture (St. John’s Wort) is the only Hypericum extract registered with the Ministry of Health for depression.

It is best suited for treating chronic mild to moderate depression. We recommend that acute depression e.g. post-natal depression be treated by a practitioner.

Clinical trials

Hypericum is one of the best-tested herbs in the world according to the standards of modern clinical trials. Thirteen trials were conducted in 1993 alone. Research including placebo control double-blind human trials has shown that it works as well as Prozac and tricyclic antidepressants such as imipramine for mild to moderate depression. It has also held up in clinical trials against diazepam, desipramine, amitriptyline, bromazepam and maprotiline.

Side effects are practically non-existent in the literature. Hypericum may cause photosensitivity in some individuals though this is not usually a problem at normal therapeutic doses.

The respected Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology published a whole issue - 17 research papers - on Hypericum’s use as an anti depressant in 1994. One of these studies showed that 80% of the 3250 patients with mild to moderate depression in the sample felt either better or completely free of symptoms after a month. (Further trial details were published in the New Zealand Medical Journal 28/02/97, reprinted from the British Medical Journal.)**

The active constituents

Until recently, Hypericum’s active constituents were thought to be hypericin and pseudohypericin. (Hypericin’s action is similar to haematoporphyrin, a synthetic product of haemoglobin with antidepressant properties. It is readily absorbed into the digestive tract and also crosses the blood brain barrier. )

However, it is now known that rutin, quercitin and chlorogenic acid are also central to its action. This means that other brand’s products that merely isolate the constituent hypericin have limited action, as they do not contain all the active ingredients.

For example, previously the sedative action was thought to be due to the hypericin, but recent studies credit the flavanoids. Levels of Hypericin are highest in the flowers and levels of flavanoids are highest in the leaves when the flowers are in full bloom, which makes a whole plant extract important.

It is also possible that the antidepressant action is due to other mechanisms. These include: the effect of light known to be associated with Hypericum use (photosensitivity), and also identified as a factor in seasonal depression.

Another clinical trial compared the effect of Hypericum extract with that of the benzodiazepine, diazepam, in the treatment of anxiety and Hypericum was found to be more effective.***