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St John's wort
Hypericum perforatum
The midsummer flower for low mood, nerve pain and wounds — and its drug interactions.
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The research
▶ 49 min
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Planets & cycles · Plants & herbs · Video research · The Sun · Sajah Popham · Hawthorn · Angelica · Ashwagandha · St John's wort
The Sun's herbs: heart, warmth, vitality and spirit
In medical astrology the Sun rules the heart and the vital force, and Sajah Popham matches its four sides with four herbs: hawthorn for the heart, angelica for warmth, ashwagandha for vitality and St John's wort for the spirit. The astrology is the old one — Lilly in 1647 gave the Sun “the Heart, the Brain and right Eye, and vitall Spirit”. The evidence behind the herbs runs from strong to none: St John's wort matches antidepressants for mild to moderate depression; hawthorn eases heart-failure symptoms without saving lives; ashwagandha has small trials for stress and sleep; angelica has no trial of its own.
1647 Lilly: the Sun “governeth the Heart, the Brain and right Eye, and vitall Spirit”
9 min read · 12 sources (9 peer-reviewed)
▶ 10 min
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Plants & herbs · Video research · Mind & nervous system · St John's wort · The Sun · Sajah Popham
St John's wort, the midsummer flower
Sajah Popham's herb of the Sun's spirit is St John's wort, the yellow flower that blooms around St John's Day at midsummer. For depression the evidence is strong: in 29 trials of 5,489 people it beat placebo and matched standard antidepressants, with fewer people stopping for side effects. He is right that it works on the liver — it speeds up how the gut and liver clear many medicines, from the contraceptive pill to transplant drugs — and that makes it one of the most interaction-prone herbs there is. For nerve pain, its one trial found no effect.
29 trials, 5,489 people with depression: St John's wort beat placebo and matched standard antidepressants
8 min read · 7 sources (6 peer-reviewed)
The videos
Each one is summarised and fact-checked in its entry, with every claim timed to the video.
- The Sun's herbs The Plant Path with Sajah Popham · 49 min · checked in “The Sun's herbs: heart, warmth, vitality and spirit” Read the summary → YouTube ↗
- St John's wort for the spirit: the Sun's herbs The Plant Path with Sajah Popham · 10 min · checked in “St John's wort, the midsummer flower” Read the summary → YouTube ↗