Harvesting and Tincturing St. John’s Wort

It is fun to learn about the amazing herbs that grow all around you. All on the roadsides near my house, and beyond them, the St. John’s Wort has been in full bloom.

I figured I’d bring you in on the first time wild harvesting and tincturing the St. John’s Wort.

The flower gets its name from the common time of harvesting it, during the peak of it’s flowering on St John’s Day, June 24th.

It’s Latin name, Hypericum perforatum is one of those names that actually refers to something (rather than being named after someone). Perforatum refers to the perforations or small holes, that can be seen in the leaves.

While St. John’s Wort is commonly thought of for depression, it has many other uses. One of which is that it can help with puncture wounds when used topically.

It works on the nervous system. Affecting certain neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin, it can be dangerous to combine with certain classes of pharmaceuticals. At the same time, this shows that it can have potent effects.

Another use is that it is specific for nerve pain.

As this was my first time tincturing St. John’s Wort, I got to watch the interesting process take place. While the flowers are yellow and orange, and the leaves are green, when place in alcohol a deep red color comes out. This is from the hypericin, one of the active constituents of the plant.

Before you ask, no we don’t sell St. John’s Wort. I didn’t even make enough for a VIP batch…but maybe in the future, assuming this first batch comes out well.

Nor do I have anyone else specifically that I would recommend you purchase St. John’s Wort from. This post is simply to share a little bit about some of the fun side projects I got going.

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Logan Christopher

CEO at Lost Empire Herbs

Logan Christopher is co-founder and CEO of Lost Empire Herbs, which aims to bring performance herbalism into everyday people’s lives. He started studying plants and fungi as a result of his interest in peak performance and strength training. This includes performing feats of strength such as pulling an 8,800 lb. firetruck by his hair, supporting half a ton on top of himself in a wrestler’s bridge position, and routinely ripping decks of cards in half with his bare hands. After visiting the Amazon rainforest, he received a calling to be an “Emissary of Nature” and thus bring humankind back into alignment with nature for health and well-being. You can read more about this in his book Powered By Nature.

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