English common name is St. John’s wort herb from mother plant Hypericum perforatum
Contains 0.2–4% phloroglucinol derivatives like hyperforin, adhyperforin, furohyperforin, and furoadhyperforin; 0.08–0.3% naphthodianthrones such as hypericin, pseudohypericin, protohypericin, and protopseudohypericin; 2–4% flavonoids (glycosides of quercetin: hyperoside, isoquercitrin, quercitrin, rutin), biflavones, 2–4% proanthocyanidins, and 5–15% catecholic tannins, up to 0.25% essential oil.
Used for treating mild to moderate depression (by decreasing the reuptake of noradrenaline, serotonin, and dopamine), as supportive therapy for nervous restlessness associated with sleep difficulties, and for relieving mild gastrointestinal complaints. Topically used for mild skin inflammations (e.g., minor sunburn) and to support the healing of small wounds.
These are the whole or broken dried flowering tops, harvested at flowering time. The branched, glabrous stem has two more or less prominent longitudinal ridges. Leaves are opposite, sessile, oval-elliptical, up to 3 cm in length, without stipules. Glands appear as black dots on the leaf margins, and the entire surface contains translucent secretory cavities visible against the light. Flowers are arranged in a broad, terminal dichasial inflorescence, with five green sepals bearing black glands on the margins, five orange-yellow petals also with black glands, numerous orange-yellow stamens fused into three bundles, and three pistils with red styles. The drug may include unripe or ripe fruits and seeds. Unripe fruits are greenish, seeds are whitish. Ripe fruits are dry, three-chambered capsules with numerous seeds, brown, broadly or slightly egg-shaped, up to 1 cm long, containing large or dotted glands arranged irregularly in the form of secretory channels. Ripe seeds are about 1.3 mm, cylindrical or triangular, blunt at both ends, brown to nearly black, finely longitudinally dotted.
The drug is listed in the pharmacopoeia.
In pulverized drug under the microscope we can see:
Colorless, translucent, large oil cavities
Red-colored cavities containing hypericin
Epidermal cells with rosary-like thickened walls
Paracytic, anisocytic, or anomocytic stomata
Pollen grains with three germ pores and a smooth exine
