Show 241: Saint John's Wort

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The name.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Down to the clan, the.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Clan to the.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Hey, y'all, welcome to this week's show. We will, as promised,
discuss hypericum this week. That's Saint John'swart really one of
the well most interesting urbs that I know of. There
are actually fourteen varieties of Saint John's wart that have
documented you Sinerbal medicine, so I won't name them all

(01:54):
and native to my area are Wow, how many I
will try to name those? We'll see Buckley Saint John's Ward,
round Pod Saint John's Wart, St Andrew's Cross or Saint
Peter's Wart, Bushy Saint John's Wart, Pillbark Saint John's Wart,

(02:16):
Bedstraw Saint John's Wart, Saint Andrew's Cross, sand Hills Saint
Andrew's Cross, Carolina Saint John's Wart. That one's actually just
here in the Carolinas Early Saint John's Wart, Shrubby Saint
John's Wart, and that's what I have in my yard.
Another one called Saint Andrew's Cross, Pineland Saint Andrew's Cross,

(02:38):
and Atlantic Saint John's Wart, and one that was brought
in from Europe. I think it's a hypericon front Doosum
I believe it could actually be an Asian one. But anyway,
Saint John's Wart truly one of the most useful and
stroyed herbs an entire historybal Medicine Discordies wrote of Saint

(03:03):
John's wart, what hundred years ago or something hypericum is
a shrubby well where it grows in Greece. Well, he
actually went throughout the entire empire. He traveled along with
the soldiers, so anyway, in his region, it was a
shrub about twenty centimeters high. That's much like the one

(03:27):
that grows in my yard. A lot of them grow
just like wildflowers. You may get one that's sort of
a shrub or bush form, and you might get one
that's just a tender wildflower. I'll often see those throughout,
you know, throughout the state and everywhere I go. Really
a very fairly common plant. But anyway, after he describes it,

(03:49):
I guess the main thing to remember, it's just got
of these bright, pretty yellow flowers. When you see that,
pull up your plant idea app, pull up your grab
a field guide or whatever and see if it's a
Saint John's ward. Of course, there are a lot of
yellow flowers. But once you identify it once, you'll recognize
it everywhere. I mean, it really can be kind of weedy,

(04:12):
it can be very widespread. He says it is diuretic
would help with the minstrel issues. A coction taken as
a drink with wine drives away fevers with paroxysm. That's
actually spasms or seizures that occur every third or fourth day.
So that would be Tritian or quark quatran fevers, which

(04:33):
usually are malarial in nature, but covid actually has that
same I don't know aspect to it. Several fevers, I
mean several viruses do the ones that really like kind
of never go away, like long covid or malaria. And yeah,

(04:53):
I mentioned before that Sir Walter Raleigh. You know, he
went from being a real hero of the British Empire
to on the alts with the king because he may
have been fooling around with the queen or something. Right,
he was beheaded, and he had had malaria, and he
had I believe Tertian fevers, so every third day, and

(05:14):
they came so regularly, he knew exactly what time of
day he was going to get his fever. And he
asked to be beheaded just before the fever struck, because
very very bad fevers. The Saint John's wort is also
a really good herb for anything like that because it
has anti viral properties. It's one of our very best
anti virals. In fact, not the strongest, but it's very

(05:37):
broad spectrum. It's very useful. Let's see. He says a
decoction of the seed taken as a drink for forty
days cure sciatica. I don't know. I don't know. I
have never even had a decoction of the drink made
from the seed, and that's quite a commitment to take
something for forty days. But heck, I get sciatica, and
maybe I'll give it a try. You know, had some

(05:58):
really bad back injuries when I was younger, and psiatic
nerves really what was affected. But I don't know. I
have used Saint John's wort topically. Saint John's wort is
actually very good for nerve pain, both internally and externally.
I've taken, you know, caps of warm, I've used tinctures
of it. But as an oil it helps with bruising

(06:20):
and muscle and nerve pain. It actually helps with nerve regeneration.
Saint John's Wart is one of the few plants that
can help stimulate the healing and regeneration of damaged nerves.
Very important, it says. The leaves applied together with the seed,
he'll burns and he gets sent to different names that

(06:42):
it was called in you know that region a couple
thousand years ago. We don't have to worry about that.
He mentions two other types of Saint John's wart. One
of the interesting things about Saint John's wart is when
you do infuse oil and somewhat true with tinctures as well,
it makes it bright red. These somehow these yellow flowers

(07:05):
put a bright red pigment in there, and the darker,
brighter redder. It is, brighter redder. I don't know that's proper,
but the more potent it is. So that's one way
you can really evaluate the strength of Saint john Swart.
And he pretty much gives the same uses for both
of these other ones, except the other one. The last

(07:27):
one he calls androsamium, and it was more of the
like wildflower form, I think is the way I would
put it. And he said it was good to help
expel biless excrement and especially cur sciatica one sip of
water after the purge. A one must sip water after

(07:51):
the purge, and the herbs smear on, heals, burns, and
stops blood. And it was also called Dionysius or escara allright,
so getting up to a little bit more modern fifteen hundred,
so quite more modern than DS qualities, but still pretty
not modern to us. Girard in England wrote, Saint John's wort,

(08:13):
with its flowers and seeds boiled and drunken, provoketh wine,
and it is good against the stone and the bladder.
It stoppeth flask. The leaves stamped are good to be
laid upon burning scaldings and all wounds, and also for
rotten and filthy ulcers. The leaves, flowers and seeds stamp
put into a glass with olive oil, and set in

(08:35):
the hot sun for certain weeks together, and then drained
from those herbs. And the light quality of new put
in and sunned in a like matter doth make in
oil the color of blood, which is a most precious
remedy for deep wounds and those that are through the body,
for sinews that are pricked, and wounds made with a
venomed weapon, poisoned weapon. Even I am accustomed to make

(08:57):
a compound oil here of the making of which ye
shall receive my hands, because that I know in the world,
there is not a better nor a more natural balsam itself.
For I dare to undertake to cure any such wound
as absolutely in each respect, if not sooner and better
as any man whatsoever shall or may with natural balsams.

(09:22):
So Gerard was a little boastful sometimes, but yes, it
is very good for wines, It is very good for burns,
it is very good for bruises, sore muscles. It's second
only in effectiveness for bruising and such to arnica. Great
for sprains, really good, and you can use the two together. Definitely.

(09:43):
The old writers, as he said, would put the dried flowers.
They need to be thoroughly dry. And I think he
said flowers, leaves and seeds, so, but they does have
to be thoroughly dry or it can spoil the oil,
you know, can start to rot in the oil. So
first of all they have be carefully dried, you know,
in a shady place. But and this is what's kind

(10:04):
of strange, you know, you draw dry herbs in the
shade in dry air with you know, good airflow. You know,
they drive faster when it's hot. So I like to
use my attic of course, or even a hot car sometimes.
But it does need to be out of the sun
because the sun oxidizes and damage the medicinal quality of

(10:27):
the plant. But all the old writers said to infuse
the oil in the sun. I mean from Gerard in
the fifteen hundreds to like Father Nape, and I mean
everybody used a sun infusion. I guess you would say
to make this infuse oil the heat of the sun.

(10:48):
I think you're better off doing it not in the sunlight,
because the sun has that same oxidizing quality. Really, like
a slow cooker on the very lowest temp, you don't
want to get it real hot, and top of your
hot water heater works pretty well. Turn the oven on like,
let it warm up to the lowest temp, turn it off,

(11:08):
and then just stick it in there for a few hours.
Never you don't want deep fried herbs. You know, That's
what I do. But then again, Saint John's wort has
a certain relationship with sunlight that's kind of hard to explain.
If you take Saint John's wart in large quantities for
a long period time. You can actually get a sensitivity sunlight.

(11:32):
You can sunburn more easily. It's really hard to the
energetics of the plant do have some correlation to sunlight,
and you can it's really such a bright, sunny yellow flower.
It kind of makes sense that it does have some
kind of relationship with sunlight. But what it is I

(11:54):
don't know, and I can't explain, and I'm not going
to venture that far. So this is one that I
think you're better off using modern methods of making imfused oil.
You probably couldn't go too wrong actually using the sunlight,
and there may actually be some benefit to it. I
don't know. He goes, and I says, take white wine,

(12:16):
two pints and four pounds of olive oil together with
oil of turpentine of two pounds. It's a lot of turpentine.
The leaves and flowers of Saint John's wart and two
great handfuls gently bruised. Put them all together in a
double glass instead in the sun for ten days. Then
boil them in the same glass in a kettle of

(12:38):
warm water with some straw in the bottom. Ok, just
to keep the glass from shattering. Where the glass must
stand and boil, which is done, and then strain the
liquor from the herbs, and putting in a like quantity
of flowers and seeds, but not any more wine. And
you will have a great secret for the purpose aforesaid.
So he thought that was really good for winds too.

(13:00):
Victoria English. It's kind of hard to elizabeth things actually
kind of hard to read sometimes. But yeah, he was
quite fond of the urban said he was a bit boastful.
He was actually the queen's like gardener, and he managed
a huge garden. He wasn't a great botanist, but he

(13:21):
was a great gardener. Miss Grieve in nineteen thirties England
gets much more modern use after describing the plant again,
and as I said, there's so many varieties of them. Basically,
just look for the yellow flowers, bright bright yellow flowers,
and then identify it by the leaf and the stem,
which can be a little reddish sometime, because they can

(13:43):
look very different. There's so many varieties of Saint John's
word that really don't look alike at all except for
the flower and a leaf. But the flower's the main thing.
She said. Un her medicinal actions, actions and uses, Oh well,
first of all, she gets a little interesting history. She said,

(14:03):
there are many ancient superstitions regarding this herb. Its name
hypericum is derived from the Greek and means over an apparition,
a reference to the belief that the herb was so
obnoxious to evil spirits that a whiff of them would
cause them to fly wow. Anyway, and if I remember correctly,
the name Saint John's Wart is because it's said to

(14:24):
bloom on Saint John's Day, and it's always had religious connotation,
especially in Poland. Maybe we can get into that a
little bit. So. Medicinal actions and uses aromatic astringent, resolvant,
expectant and nervine used in all pulmonary complaints, bladder troubles,
in suppression of urine, dysentery, worms, diarrhea, hysteria and nervous depression,

(14:47):
hematopsis and other hemorrhages, and jaundice for children troubled with
incontinents of urine at night, and infusion or tea given
before retiring would be found effectual. It is also useful
in pulmonary conc asumption, chronic cattera of the lungs, bowels
or urinary passages, and externally for fomentations to dispel hard tumors,

(15:08):
cake breasts and something I can't pronounce ech emoss e
c h y m O s I S. I mean,
I have to look that one up. I don't know that.
And her recommendations for preparation dose is really simple, actually
just one ounce of the dry of our herb infused
in a pint of water and one to two tablespoons

(15:28):
taken as a dose. Simple, super simple. And she said
an oil of Saint John's wort was made from the
flowers and fused and olive oil. Yeah. I've only used
the flowers, Gerard said, flowers, leaves and seeds. I really
have never even never experimented with the seeds at all.
It's just the flowers that I'm really aware of now.
In the Irish tradition, John Keho said that Saint John's

(15:53):
work promote provokes the urine and breaks up the stone
and the bladder. It stops diarrhea and curs fevers. The
seed boiled and drunk for forty days. He was sciatica,
so we know where he got that information from. And
if pounded, it makes an effective application to burns, wounds
and boils and really we shouldn't be too surprised by

(16:16):
that that he would be knowledgeable of DS Cord's work.
You know, Ireland was one of the first great outposts
of Catholicism. I mean, yeah, Catholicism has spread through the
Germanic countries first and France and all that, but there
was a big monastic culture in Ireland. Some of the

(16:38):
most beautiful hand transcribed and engraved Bibles, artwork, you know,
drawn by monks, were in Ireland. You know, Saint Patrick
brought Christianity Ireland very early. He was a Roman citizen
who was captured by Irish pirates and sold into slavery.

(16:59):
He escaped, went back, became a monk and heard the
voice of God telling him to go to Ireland and
you know, christianize the country. And he did. And there
were Viking invasions that really destroyed the early churches and monasteries,
and then you know, Ireland became a very Catholic nation,

(17:20):
but it never really hit that height again. But some
of the most educated of all the monks were Irish
or those from the continent that moved to Ireland as monks,
and with them, especially those coming from the continent, were
bringing discords herbal They said, I can't remember what I

(17:44):
was watching a program one time, and I think this
was like in the Alps, Austrian Alps. This is like
nineteen seventies, and there were still monks practicing herbal medicine
using hand copied of diascorites herbal So I mean, yeah,
anywhere the monks went they took diascorities with them. That

(18:06):
was a very huge part of Catholic herbal medicine. And
you know, for fifteen hundred years there was only one
Christian church that was the Catholic Church, and it's you know,
kind of schismatic brother the Orthodox. But ninety percent of
the world was Catholic. Ninety nine percent of the of

(18:26):
Christians in the world were Catholic. And all the hospitals
were free hospitals operated by the Catholic Church, like by
the Benedictines and the Jesuits, say, had free hospitals, all
the orphanages, all the schools, every school on the face
of the earth, basically at least in the Western world
was Catholic. And Dave did a very good job of

(18:50):
passing down books which were pretty rare at the time.
You got to remember most people were illiterate until very
recent Only in the past, like one hundred years or
so did we get to anything approaching universal literacy. Most
people couldn't read, and books were incredibly expensive because they
had to be copied by hand until Gutenberg came along

(19:13):
and his goal was to print Catholic Bibles. He was
a Catholic, and he printed Catholic Bibles with the authority
of the Catholic Church behind him. Contrary to many anti
Catholic Protestant claims that you know, Catholics aren't allowed to
read the Bible, or Catholics weren't allowed to own Bibles. Now,

(19:34):
the stated coal of Gutenberg was to print Catholic Bibles
so everyone could have one. And the Dewey Riems predates
the King James version and is a much more accurate
and complete Bible. So whenever you hear someone say Catholics
aren't allowed to read the Bible, understand that's a bigoted,
ignorant statement that has no foundation in truth whatsoever. Now,

(19:59):
there were false versions of the Bible printed, mistaken translations,
or Bibles that were purposefully changed to change the words
of Christ in the Bible to change to suit false doctrines,
and at different times the Catholic Church said, no, that
Bible is no good. You need to stick with a

(20:20):
Catholic Bible, such as the Dewey Rings, which dates back,
oh what around fifteen hundred and it was it's a
translation of the Biblio Sacravolgata, which was translated by Saint
Jerome from Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek texts into Latin in
right around four hundred and was the official Bible of

(20:43):
the Catholic Church. I believe may have been. Which council
was it? Nicean council I believe like four to seventy
seven AD, was declared the official Catholic Bible, and there
wasn't another Bible until you know, the fifteen High But
not everybody could read Latin. So that's actually why you

(21:04):
have a priest get up and read to you from
the Bible in mass and gibehamily explaining it. Because most
people were illiterate. That's why we have stained glass windows.
They told stories from the Bible, you know. Yeah, so
just remember Christians didn't have a Bible for over three
hundred years. They had some books of the Old Testament

(21:28):
that they most of them couldn't read because they were
in Hebrew and they spoke Greek. But even if they
spoke Greek, they were probably illiterate. All they had was
the oral teaching passed down by the apostles. They had
the letters of like if you were in you know,
if you look in the Bible, you've got the letter
of Saint Paul to this church, the Letter of Saint

(21:48):
Paul to this church, a small book you know, of Peter,
and you've got the Gospels if you were lucky, if
you were in church and you had one copy of
one book of the New Testament. They all had a
document called the d Daca, which means the Teachings of
the Twelve, which gave the basics of Christian belief and

(22:12):
how and when one should worship, and I mean it
actually spells out, you know, Christians go to church on Sunday,
and that church is a Catholic church with the Eucharist
and the Holy Mass. There's no other church, believe it
or not. And that's all they had for over three
hundred years. And then Saint Jerome was able to translate

(22:36):
the entire Bible into the common language at the time,
which is Latin, and really that remained the main text
until those monks in Ireland started translating the Latin into Gaelic.
There were Gaelic Bibles that pre date English language Bibles
by centuries, and they're beautiful. They're just absolutely gorgeous. And

(22:58):
they also translated corties herbal and such as that into
the common language where they were. They'd take it from
Latin and they'd write it out in Gaelic, or they'd
write it out in German, or they'd write it out
in French. And that's how the Catholic Church preserved the
medical knowledge of Greece and ancient Rome, and you know,

(23:20):
founded the first hospitals and taught the first doctors, and
that's the way things went for a good fifteen hundred years.
And then really when it's the rise of the nation
state that came along with Protestantism, that started the guilds

(23:42):
and the professional medical schools that are totally divorced from
religious teaching and practice and got more well, I mean,
that's what started the chemical pharmaceutical industry and banning the
use of herbs and medical practice. Because it's always the guilds,

(24:04):
whether it's the American Medical Association, which is you know,
the modern version of one of those guilds that said
if you're not an approved physician, if you're not an
approved apothecist or pharmacists, you can't practice. You will go
to jail for that. Well, you know, Paracelsus faced that
a lot. He was actually hunted from country to country.

(24:27):
I mean, yeah, that's the beginning of modern medicine and
taking it away from its natural roots. And you know,
if you want to learn about that, in my book,
The History of Christian Noble Medicine, probably the only text
that really gives that history, and it is actually fascinating.
It's also my most controversial book because you got a

(24:49):
lot of neo pagans, a lot of you know, witches
and wickens and people who claim to be druids, even
though they have no idea what druids actually believed or practice,
because druids were illiterate and didn't leave them records. You know,
they hate it, They absolutely hate it when I point
out like Saint Hildegard van Bingen or Father Nayfather coonsl

(25:13):
or Abbott, Walford Strawbo as preserving herbal medicine. They just
want to believe that you know, the Catholic Church is
evil and condemned everybody who have made a Cama milt
as being a witch and burn them at the stake
or something. Total fiction, total lies. They hate it, and
of course a lot of Protestants who have anti Catholic

(25:34):
bigotry bias hate it as well. I got one really
nasty review on there. You know, the lady says, this
isn't a Christian book, it's a Catholic book. You know.
You know, Amazon won't take it down. If she had
said that about a Jewish author, uh, they would have
called it bigotry and taken it down. She had said

(25:57):
that about a Chinese author, they would call it big
a tree and take it down. I could go down
the list, but I guess it's okay on Amazon to
say that Catholics aren't Christian, which is you know, utterly fallacious.
I mean, there was only one Christian church until Martin

(26:17):
Luther and King Henry the eighth. There was not another
church other than you know, the slightly schismatic Orthodox Church,
and that was at that time basically just Greek. You know,
Orthodoxy hadn't spread into Russia and other areas at that time.

(26:37):
The Orthodox Church was just Greek and it was mainly
just a dispute over language. It actually has today's actually
the solemnity of the Holy Trinity. The understanding in Greek
Orthodox theology, which has now been adopted by Russian Orthodox
in your other Eastern Orthodox churches of the nature of

(27:00):
the Trinity differs ever so slightly from the Catholic understanding
of it. And that's basically the only thing they disagree on,
which is really weird. I mean, honestly, most people, who
most Catholics and most Orthodox have no idea what the

(27:21):
so called philiquay actually is and why they have a
different understanding of the nature of the second person of
the Trinity and why a few hundred years ago that
was a controversy. Now things changed over time, and you know,
the Orthodox churches when I accept the authority of the

(27:43):
pope and did, but really probably could have reunited the
two churches reunited decades ago were it not for political influence.
The Orthodox Churches were actually under the rule of a
Muslim caliph for a couple hundred years, and that's when

(28:04):
they really began to oppose the pope because the caliph
demanded loyalty, and you know, they couldn't be loyal to
the Pope in Rome and also not get their heads
cut off by a Muslim ruler. Understandable, I'm not cruticizing
of an offer that. But then, of course, the same

(28:25):
thing happened to the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union thoroughly
controls to this day the Russian orth Well, it's the
ancestor now, I mean it's not ancestor, it's a descendant,
which is, you know, just Russia, which is still very
much the same old KGB as under the Soviet Union.
The Government of Russia or Soviet Union or whatever you

(28:48):
want to call it, still has tremendous influence in the
Orthodox Churches. You know, I don't necessarily agree with Zelensky,
but I understand why he cracked down on the Orthodox
churches in Ukraine because their loyalty is first and foremost
to Russia. You know, what are you going to do?

(29:13):
We've been through a good one hundred years of the
Russian government literally dictating who can be there, like basically
priests and bishops, and what they can teach and what
they can say and do in their churches and their
spies in every single Russian Orthodox church and if somebody
stepped out of line. He's got to remember the Soviet

(29:34):
Union was officially atheist, officially atheists, but they allowed the
Orthodox Churches to operate so long as they could control
and demand their loyalty. Had it not been for that,
the ridiculous little schism over you know, whether or not
to lose Latin or Greek, and whatever the filiquy is,

(29:55):
it has to do with the sect. You know, the
nature of Jesus essentially and really in his relationship to
the Father and the Holy Spirit. And it's so esoteric.
Even most people that get worked up and argue about
it don't even know what they're talking about. I mean, really,

(30:15):
it's just weird, honestly. But yeah, eventually, yeah, eventually the
Orthodox and Catholic Church will reunite. But anyway you look
at it, both were very influential in spreading the knowledge
of our medicine in the Greek world especially, and even

(30:35):
you can put in a large amount of the Muslim physicians.
They were essential to preserving the knowledge of Galen. Galen,
the you know, Roman military physician, he wrote a lot,
really not a good guy, but he made a lot

(30:56):
of advances in surgery and such and that's why, really
the the Muslim physicians, the Mahometans as they were called
at the time, were more advanced in surgical practice than
there were the Romans and certain Germans in the Middle Ages.
You know, if you ever watch the old Kevin cost

(31:18):
version of Robin Hood, they actually make a slight reference
to that. The you know, Muslim guy that was with him,
that broke out of the jail with him was a
physician and he did a c section of cesarean that
was unknown in England. In the Middle Ages that was
not done. But yeah, they had the advanced knowledge of medicine.

(31:42):
Really in the Islamic world at that point, they were
far more sophisticated. So anyway, you know, just like I said,
it's the history and the lore that always keeps me
interested in herbal medicine. I just find it fascinating. So
now let's turn to the German tradition. Father wrote Saint
John's Wart on effect of its great On account of

(32:05):
its great effect, formally bore the name of witches Herb. Nowadays,
both itself and its services are quite forgotten. So it's
always had a spiritual context, even when it was a
superstitious one. This is when really it was purposefully named
after Saint John, so it would take away that connotation

(32:25):
of witchcraft. He said, This medicinal herb has a particular
influence on the liver. Its tea is an excellent remedy
for it. A small ad mixture of alo powder increases
the effect, which can be observed chiefly in the urine. Whole.
Flakes of morbid matter are sometimes washed away with it.

(32:45):
Head complaints arising from watery matters or obstructions of phlegm
in the head, or from the gases rising to the head,
such as spasms, slight obstructions of phlegm, and the chest
and lungs are healed at once by a tea made
of Saint John's wart. Mothers who are caused a great
deal of trouble and anxiety by their little bedwetters, should

(33:06):
tell us much about the strong effects of such tea.
If Saint John's wart is not to be had, common
yarrow exactly a milifolium may be used in all the
given cases. And yeah, there's a lot of a lot
of Like I said, you know, Saint John's wart is
second only to Arnica for healing bruises and sprains and swelling.

(33:27):
Saint John's wart is second really to yarrow in internal
bleeding diarrhea. Very stringent, you know so. Brother Aloysius was
father of NAP's protoshepe. He said it's used for lung complaints,
chronic caterra, this congestion, asthma, chills, bladder caterra, and if
the urate is thick. It is also used for hysteria, jaundice,

(33:49):
absence of menstruation due to illness, green sickness, blood spitting, lucorea, pneumonia, rheumatism, fever,
intestinal blockage, dysentery, nervous cramps, and uterine cramps. Leaves and
flour boiled in olive oil are a good remedy for
sores and confusions, for shivering and shaking, and those who
suffer from the nerves. This oil should be rubbed on

(34:09):
twice a day. For bruises and cloth dipped in this
oil should be placed in the affected area to strengthen
the tendons. Rubbed them twice a day with this oil.
Now we talked about how a lot of the old
urblists would say, infuse the plant in sunlight. Brother Aloysius says,
boiled in oil not a good idea actually, obviously, if
it's not completely dry, it's gonna pop and spit in

(34:31):
the oil. But if it is completely dry, you're just
gonna deep pray your herbs. I still say that a
slow infusion at a low temperature is the best way
to go. Now. Father Kunzel, Austrian Irblis, said Saint John's
work can be recognized immediately by the blood. If you

(34:52):
squeeze a half open blossom between your fingernails, blood will
come out. It's really a yellow juice. It's useless if
it has no blood. As he said, you can find
Saint John's ward on sunny edges of meadows and empty
farmland semi dry soils, very often in mountain pastures in
the Alps. The latter are the smallest and have the
darkest blood. The leaves and blossoms of Saint John's wort

(35:15):
made into tea clear the head, clean the mucus from
the long, stomach, kidney and bladder. If the infusion is red,
take a sip of this tea every hour. It also
often helps with blood cramps and abdominal pains. Saint John's
oil is very famous, and he tells how he makes
the oil. And let's see, he used the sunlight, so yeah,

(35:39):
I guess there's nothing wrong with that, but it's still
probably better, you know, try both ways. He said, if
the small is this is interesting, okay. First of all, okay.
Use of the oil, he says, it quenches internal and
external gangreen and humans. In cattle. It leaves pains from
burns and scalds, also from lumbago and rheumatic pain by

(36:01):
rubbing it in. It is also used internally for colic.
It is used for stab wounds, cuts bruises, and should
therefore not be missing in any hum sage advice. But
he said, if the small, well behaved cat gets a need,
I don't know what that means, give him a few
times a few drops of Saint John's wort oil. If

(36:24):
an honest, hard working domestic chicken has a symptom of
cough or watery eyes or some inner burn so it
stands around with its tail hanging, give it some oil.
So he was big on herbs for livestock and animals
as well. Maria Trevin, the great Austrian herbalist who wrote

(36:47):
such wonderful books in the seventies and eighties, helped from
God's pharmacy helped from God's garden. She did probably more
than anyone to provide the very very Catholic tradition of
Germanic herbal medicine. She said, First of all, she describes
how to to identify it, and then she says, old

(37:07):
Christian beliefs connect to the fragrant red juice of the
flower with the blood and wounds of Jesus Christ. The
fact is that Saint John's wart oil is the best
wound oil. It sues, the pain is anti inflammatory and healing.
Legends dedicate this herb to Saint John the Baptist. In
earlier times, maidens twisted gardens of garlands of Saint John's

(37:31):
wart and wore them dancing around the fire on Saint
John's Day that began. This is very much part of
the Polish tradition. Let's see, she says, in this mysterious night,
the branches of the herb were thrown into the water
to show the maidens who their suitor would be in
the next year. You know, old superstition tradition. But it's nice,

(37:53):
it's a nice custom. And she was in Austria. I've
read a lot about that in and Poland and Ukraine
as well, So probably most of the Germanic world kind
of had similar, probably pre Christian traditions that were then
kind of rebranded as as Christian. She said. According to

(38:15):
an old custom, the farmers in Upper Austria fed Saint
John's wart placed between two layers of bread to animals
to keep them from all diseases. In these days there's
only done rarely. Uh. Saint John's worth tea is used
for injured nerves and nervous affections, for injuries caused by
blow as well as the consequence of strains for neuralgia.

(38:36):
Two to three cups of Saint John's wort tea sipped
in the area rubbed with Saint John's wort oil. Speech
disorders fistful, fitful sleep, hysteric sleepwalkers our remedy with Saint
John's wart, as well as bed wetting and depression. My
experience experiences show that for all these disorders, besides the
use of the tea, internally, sitzbaths can be very comfortable

(39:00):
with Saint John's wart added to it. That means sit
in a tub. They used to use a wash tub
and you just basically get your butt in there now.
You know we have bathtubs. Girls during puberty should drink
two cups of this tea daily for a length of time.
It strengthens the female organs and promotes regular ministration. Yeah.

(39:22):
She talks a lot about the oil, but we've really
already covered those uses. Yep, she did the let's see,
she did the Yeah, she did the sod or for
the oil and fuse in the oil, putting it near
a stove, and she said it both worked, was fine,
So I'm gonna stick with my way of doing it anyway. Yeah,

(39:47):
so the sits bath. She actually gives instructions for it.
A bucket full of Saint John's wart stems, leaves and
flour steep in cold water every night, everything brought to
a boil the next morning, and the liquid added to
to the bathwater. Bass should last for twenty minutes. The
Ashkenazi Jews used Saint John's work quite a bit. To see.

(40:09):
This is Theatric Cohen, and I cannot remember her co author.
It's not coming to me right now. She says that
as in other parts of the Soviet Union, between the
world Wars, traditional healers and the pale that's where most
of the Ashkazi Jews lived a sort of a ghetto
of sorts, relied on hypericum perforatum as remedy for many

(40:31):
of the elements of their community suffered. Out of almost
one hundred townsand villages examined between the wars, the vast
majority reported medicinal knowledge of Saint John's wart, attesting to
the herb's important role in Eastern European folk healer's repertoire.
The herb was commonly found in meadows and hills among
the shrubs of Ukraine, in places I cannot pronounce. Traditional

(40:54):
healers treated skin disorders with the herb, you know how,
Poland Ukraine, A lot of those places, Czechoslovakia. It's like
they throw every consonant they confined into one word, and
I can't pronounce them. I can't even try to pronounce them.
Folk killers relied to preparations of Saint John's wort to
treat various intestinal ailments and kidney troubles. In almost twenty settlements,

(41:18):
the same folk killers plus several others likely filters. Filters
were like amateur doctors. I guess that you would put
it that way. They had apprenticed under a filter or doctor,
and they would be paid for their services. In the
Ashgonazi Jewish tradition, they were apothecus. They were doctors, but

(41:42):
they had they normally did not have medical degrees or licenses.
They used to treat cases of diarrhea, bloody diarrhea, and
let's see. The plant tops were used for respiratory elements
such as cough and shortness of breath, pneumonia and lung diseases,
for kidney blood and metal bolic diseasers. Healers in another

(42:02):
place I cannot pronounce turned to this herb for headaches
caused by anemia or dizziness. Decoction of the herb will
either wash the hair of both the young and old
afflicted by this ailment or was given as a drink
if a person or cow was bitten by a mad dog.
In I'm gonna try this one, Basilia, it's actually got
a few vowels. The coction of Saint John's was given

(42:26):
to help cure the infection, and ointment was prepared. For
head colds, a plant tincture was used for washing wounds.
Fresh or festering sores were treated with an ointment of
made for the dried flowers. She says the most interesting
applications of Saint John's wart in the Pale are the
remedies for nervous system conditions. These treatments seem to anticipate

(42:49):
contemporary research show in the last part the twentieth century
that highlights the plant's ability to calm anxiety and depression. Yes,
we haven't even discussed that Saint John's wart is very good,
especially for season depression seems to help with serotonin, which
is also calming in cases of anxiety. In Poland, Saint
John's work seems to have been as much used as

(43:12):
a deterrent for evil spirits as a medicinal remedy. Sophie
Hotteroic Snab says, hung in a window it protected a
house against lightning. Up until the twentieth century, it was
also believed to protect new mothers and infants against evil
spirits when tucked into the crevices and chimneys of the house.
For this reason, the midwife often talked a sprig of

(43:33):
the plant under a new mother's pillow and hung some
around the neck of an infant until the child's first bath.
This was especially true in and around the rural countryside
of Krakow. By the sixteenth century. It was used as
a diuretic and for healing wounds, burns, and ults. The
flesh fresh flowers were soaked in spiritus and applied to wounds,

(43:54):
as well as old ones that refused to heal. Spiritus
is essentially vodka. I mean a very strong, high proof
like aquavida or something like that. In a Russian or
herbal tells us. According to an old Russian proverb, it

(44:14):
is as impossible to make bread without flour as it
is to heal people without Saint John's wort. Wow. This
herb was so popular in early Russia that Zarmichael the
First issued a special order that no less than one
hundred pounds of this herb be collected each year and
delivered to his court. Also very popular Native American herbal medicine.

(44:37):
The Cherokee had two varieties. The sie Hypericum hyper hyperacoides
was used to give baby strength to bathe them in
a warm or cold root tea. Some babies will walk
in at eight or nine months like this. Make a
tea with as much as you can hold in your
hand to break a fever. Drink this and go to bed,

(44:59):
and also use take bite theodum, which is more commonly used,
the top leaves are made into a tea for bloody
flux diarrhea. Essentially, beat the roots fine and make a
cold root tea. Drink as much as you can. For
bal complaints, the Lumbee used Saint John's wart. According to
a Lumbee herbal the plant was called upha takitne or

(45:22):
raccoon tree leaf raccoon tree leaves in the traditional Lumbee language.
Mister Vernon Cooper, we've mentioned him before. He's a pretty
famous Slumbie herbalist that I believe I actually met when
I was a kid. But anyway, he made a tonic
using Saint John Swart or also known by the Lumbia

(45:42):
as Saint John the Worker, by combining the male and
female varieties. It's the small and larger plants, so they
could be used for the men or women. He suggested
that early stages of diabetes could be helped, that the
individual should use this tonic, in other words, for later
stay diabetes. Mister Cooper called which Mister Cooper called sugar

(46:03):
in the bone or neurritis. He would occasionally use Saint
John's wart while cherry bark ground huckleberry. He also used
tonic of the female variety of Saint John the Worker
to treat bloody trouble in body trouble in women. The
Cherokee making infuse, well, we just oh, that's interesting. They
didn't mention that in the Cherokee says the Cherokee make
a confusion of Saint John the Worker to be sniffed

(46:25):
up the nose treat nosebleed. The Alabama used the tea
made for the entire plant to treat dysentery resources in
fields in forest eighteen sixties, said that it is beneficially
ministered in suppression of urine, chronic urinary affections, diarrhea, dysentery, worms, jaundice,

(46:46):
min rajah, hysteria, hematopsis externally applied to cake breast hard tumors.
It is prus of service King's Medical Dispensatory eighteen ninety eight.
Saint Johnswart is an a bunch that or are growing
in this country in Europe. They go through all the
description and all that, let's get to just actions, medicinal
uses and dosages. This is a pharmacy manual, A stringent

(47:10):
sedative and diuretic used in suppression of the urine chronic
urinary affections in diarrhea, dysentery, worms, jaundice, mineraja, hysteria, nervous
affections with depression, hematopsis, and other hemorrhages. Hypericon has an
undoubted power of the nervous system and particularly the spinal cord.
Homeopathic physicians regarded it as the arnica of that structure.

(47:34):
It can be used in injuries of the spine and
lacerated punction wounds, and the limbs to prevent to titanic
complications and to relieve the excruciating pains of such injuries.
It is highly valued by webster and spinal irritation when
upon general pressure the spiness process that the vertebrae, burning

(47:54):
pain is elicited throbbing of the whole body in nervous individuals,
Fever being absent is said to be good good indication
for hypericum, so as specifics it says for spinal injuries, shocks, concussions,
throbbing at the whole body without fever, spinal irritation that
elicits tenderness and burning pain upon slight pressure, spinal injuries

(48:17):
and lacerate and punction wound punctured wounds of the extremities
with excruciating pain, hysteria, and locally for wounds, contusions, et CETERA.
Jethrough Class in nineteen twenties said medicinal properties aromatic, nervine, astringent, resolvant, sedentary, diuretic,
and vulnerary powerfully is powerful as a blood purifier, very

(48:41):
good for tumors and boils, as well as for chronic
uterine troubles pains following childbirths. Suppressed urine diearrhea, dysentery, and
jaundice will correct irregular menstruation. Good in hysteria and nervous afflictions.
Excellent for pussing. The urine good use externally and an
ointment for cake breasts, all wounds, ulcers and sores will

(49:04):
correct bedwetting children, and proper diet is given. The seeds
deep in boiling water will expel congealed blood from the stomach.
For this purpose, use a heaping tea spoonence of the
seeds to a cup of boiling water, and take a
mouthful several times a day. Wow All right. Modern use
now plants for future medicinal use of Saint John's wart.
Saint John's wort has a long history of verbal use.

(49:25):
It fell out of favor in the nineteenth century, but
recent research has brought it back to prominence as extremely
valuable remedy for nervous problems. In clinical trials, about sixty
seven percent of patients with mild to moderatet depression improved
when taking this plant. The flowers and leaves are analgesic
and aseptic, anti spasmodic, aromatic, astringent, colagogue, digestive, diuretic, expectorant,

(49:50):
and nervine resolvent, sedative stimulant, fermifuge, vulnary and vulnerate me
he's wound healing. The herb is used in treating a
wide range of disorders, including orminary complaints, bladder problems, diarrhea,
nervous depression. It is also very effectual in treating overnight
incontinence of urine and children. Externally is used in poultices

(50:11):
to dispell hard tumors, cake, breast bruising, et cetera, the
flowering shoots or harvest. Okay, we don't need to get
into all that. So yes, really good, and it mentions
that it was being researched as an AIDS remedy even
Peterson Field Guide to Eastern centum Plants says fresh flowers

(50:33):
used in tear tincture or olive oil once a popular
domestic medicine for treatment of external ulters, wounds, sores, cuts, bruises,
tea and folk remedy for bladder elemets, depression, dysentery, diarrhea,
and worms. Experimentally as sedative anti inflammatory antibacterial contains the
biologically active compounds coline, pecninm root and cituster. I like him.

(50:57):
I'm just gonna spell it. T O S T E,
R O L hypericon and pseuda hypericon have potent anti
retroviral activity without serious side effects. Being researched for AIDS treatment. Warning.
Taken internally or externally, hypericon may cause photodermatitis, that is,

(51:20):
on sensitive people exposed to light, so it can make
you more susceptible to sunburn as we mentioned. So wow, huh,
I mean hypericon. Saint John's Wart, as I said, one
of the most storied, fascinating, impressive, medically useful of all herbs,
and that I'm glad I got through that one because
it was a long one. All right, ya, do learn

(51:45):
to identify Saint John's ward in the wild. This is
what I would say always have on hand, especially for
wounds and swords and such as that, and as an antiviral.
And fortunately because it did become popular in the we're
all right around two thousand or so. As for especially

(52:06):
seasonal depression. You can probably find a good quality Saint
John's Wart in just about any drug store or grocery store.
I think they even sell it at Dollar Tree, No
Dollar General. Yeah, they had to carry the rex All
brand of vitamins and so, and I think there's a
rex Sol does a Saint John's Wart, and that says
a good quality vitamin brand actually at a pretty good price.

(52:28):
So no reason you shouldn't have this one around. A
really fascinating plant. And honestly, we've barely barely scraped the surface,
even though we went over several continents and several different
cultures and all kinds of very interesting use. Y'all have
a great week, and I'll talk to you next time.
The information this podcast is non intended to diagnose or

(52:51):
treat any disease or condition. Nothing I say or right
has been evaluated or approved by the FDA. I'm not
a doctor. The US government does I recognize the practice
of verbal medicine. And there is no governing body regulating
herbless Therefore, I'm really just a guy who stays herbs.
I'm not offering any advice. I won't even claim that
anything I write or say is accurate or true. I

(53:12):
can tell you what earths have been traditionally used for,
I can tell you my own experience, and if I
believe in herb has helped me, I cannot, nor would
I tell you to do the same. If you use
an herb anyone recommends you are treating yourself, you take
full responsibility for your health. Humans are individuals, and no
two are identical. What works for me may not work
for you. You may have an allergy of sensitivity and

(53:35):
underlying condition that no one else even shares and you
don't even know about. Be careful with your health by
continuing to listen to my podcast or read my blog
you read it, Be responsible for yourself, your own research,
make your own choices, and not to blame me for
anything ever.

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Show 241: Saint John's Wort

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