Hypericum Perforatum L., commonly known as St. John’s wort, is one of the best-known medicinal herbs. wort infused oils are mostly used externally, but can be taken orally for stomach ulcers, a food supplement. Therefore, it important to develop methods that allow rapid and reliable determination β-caryophyllene, which main active components wort. In this work, two gas chromatographic technique...

St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum) has been used as a medical herb for over 2000 years. Over the past two decades, its application as a standardized plant extract for treating depression has undergone rigorous scientific investigation, and its effectiveness has been shown in studies comparing it with other commonly used antidepressants and placebos. Safety and tolerability studies have reve...

The use of natural health products (NHPs) within the HIV community is high. Several NHPs have demonstrated interactions with HIV medications that could contribute to drug failure. We aimed to conduct a systematic review of clinical trials examining NHP-HIV drug interactions and their methodological characteristics. We searched electronic databases and unpublished resources independently, in dup...

An increasing number of premenopausal women use contraception whereas postmenopausal women use hormone replacement therapy (HRT). This long-term hormone therapy poses a high risk of interactions with dietary supplements. Taking estrogens at the same time as selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs), biologically-active compounds of glycine soja, Ginkgo biloba or Pimpinella anisum, may dist...

discussed the potential for St. John’s wort (SJW) to cause drug interactions. At that time, SJW had been identified as an inducer of cytochrome P450 3A4 (CYP3A4) and P-glycoprotein (P-gp). We discussed the interactions with alprazolam, oral contraceptives, and several antiretroviral drugs. In each case, SJW was shown to increase the metabolism of the object drug resulting in a reduction in effi...

In recent years, the combined use of Herbal medicines and Western drugs has been increasing. Though certain problems may occur when both types of medicines are taken together, they have not been adequately analyzed. It was reported that anticoagulation was enhanced in addition to bleeding when patients took long-term warfarin therapy in combination with Salvia miltiorrhiza (danshen), and laxati...

Hyperforin is an important active component of St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum) that has been suggested to be responsible for the St. John's wort antidepressive effects and herbal-drug interactions. In this study, the in vitro metabolism profile of hyperforin was investigated using liver microsomes from male and female Sprague-Dawley rats, with or without induction by phenobarbital or dex...

St. John's wort has been found to be an effective and safe herbal treatment for depression in several clinical trials. However, the underlying mechanism of its therapeutic effects is unclear. Recent studies show that the loss and malfunction of oligodendrocytes are closely related to the neuropathological changes in depression, which can be reversed by antidepressant treatment. In this study, w...