It grows wild here everywhere and I am needing the boost the SJW tea is supposed to give the emotional status.
Does anyone know how I would brew the tea? Fresh? plant? Just flowers? Leaves (they smell SO good!)?
St John's Wort
Perhpas these sites will get you started:
http://altnature.com/library/sjwinfo.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_John's_wort
Just FYI, if you have any medications you take regularly, check out whether it might interact.
Here's my SJW; I'm very proud of it. It was about 4" across when I put it in, and it's still quite low. Doesn't it get to be a shrub?
The wild one is more weedy.
I drank tea made from leaf and flower, mixed with mint. It really lifted my mood and calmed me. So, yesterday when things were bad again I just grabbed a pinch of leaves, stem and flower and ate them on the way to church! LOL!
Guess I'm a risk taker, but again it did seem to help.
That's why nature put it there!
The wild one that I use looks like this.
I suspect mine is busier establishing roots than growing up. I'll post a picture if and when it changes. Thanks for that photo of the wild kind.
Both the leaves and flowers are used medicinally. What most people dont know about the herb and MY favorite use for it is as a sunburn remedy! I harvest the leaves, put it in my Vita Mix (although the leaves are so tender any blender should be fine) I blend it with enough olive oil to make it soupy. I put the mixer in a jar and place it in my dehydrator at 105 F for 10 days (a warm area should do just as well) shaking the jar every day. I then strain it through some cheese cloth squeezing well at the end. I allow it to settle and syphon off the oil from the water with a turkey baster...at this point you can just bottle the oil and use it as is or add some bees wax (melt it first) and make a salve.
Thank you or that recipe! How cool that a plant which can cause sun sensitivity can be used on sun burn!
I was out on the boat this weekend, decided not to use any sunblock as I already had a tan...well I ended up looking like a lobster! I had just finished some salve...mine was a mixture of Comfrey, St. John's Wort and Calendula cooked for 10 days in olive oil and shea butter, then thickened with bee's wax to make a salve a little thinner than vicks vapo rub. Within 20 minutes of applying the burning sensation was gone. Woke up this morning more tan than red...still a little burn sensation but not enough to disturb my sleep. My skin had absorbed all the salve and I reapplyed this morning. Again within 20 minutes the burning sensation went away and it's now evening and I didn't have to reapply all day. I will put on more tonite. Tomorrow I will wildcraft some more (seems that the wild herbs are more potent medicinally) and make them in a glycerine base for a spray or cream. Will make some straight and will save some for mixture with Calendula and Comfrey. I wonder if St. John's Wort would have any benefit mixed with Jewelweed as a treatment for poison ivy...I have mixed Jewelweed with my skin favorite herbs: Comfrey and Calendula...I wonder if the heat deadening properties of St. John's Wort would help the Jewelweed cool down the itch?
What a great recipe! Thanks for sharing it.
BTW, my SJW is still not growing vertically at all, but it sure is spreading. It was about 8" across in the above photo and is now about 2" across! Still just watching and waiting.
Edited to ask what you mean by "cooking" -- steeping? And do you heat it up to get the beeswax in, or mix it with the kitchen mixer? (Never made a salve before!)
This message was edited Jul 17, 2007 10:09 AM
I have an excaliber dehydrator and I put the jars of mixture in at 105F shaking the mixture everyday for about 10 days. Temps above 130F will kill off some important nutrients in the plant (actually the temps that kill are below 130 but studies showed that the ingredients didn't reach the same temp as the dehydrator and remained viable) If I'm using bulk bees wax I melt it seperately and add it to the mixture, shake and let it cook another day. If I'm using bees wax pastilles (little beads of wax) I add it right in. I smell the herb mixture the day I start it and everyday thereafter. If it starts to smell foul I up the temp to 130 for the rest of the day and then back down to 105...I've only had to do it once. A yogurt maker could substitute for the dehydrator and would be much cheaper if you don't own a dehydrator. Adding a little vitamin E oil at the end keeps it fresh longer...although the sunburn salve never stays around here that long in the summer!
Hope this helps
It helps tremendously! Thank you. I do have a dehydrator but it's not a temperature-controlled one (I'm too cheap). But I'll figure out something. Maybe I'll pull out the old yogurt maker...
Glad to help, let me know if you have any problems. A good source for bees wax and bases (especially the unusual ones) can be found on Ebay:Bourgeois Bargains... fair prices, combined shipping and super fast ship time. I highly recommend them. She even has 95 cent auctions all the time...if your willing to wait you can get some real bargains.
Thanks for the tip! I get mine from a beekeeper near here, but there's a lot to look at on ebay and she may have something I REALLY NEEEEEEEEEEEED. ;}
It is usually Hypericum perforatum that is used medicinally, and although this is an upright plant that grows to about 2 ft in its first year it can be quite low. On the other hand it could be an entirely different variety - there are over 300.
The tincture recipe sounds excellent - must try it.
This is the funny thing about St. John's wort...Used externally, it has antibacterial & antiinflammatory properties, which is why I use it in burn salves and ointments, plus I love the way it colors my oil bases. Used internally, it can be photo-toxic, that is, it can cause sensitivity to the sun, and sunburns.
(This is why St. John's wort was declared an "invasive" weed in some western states, livestock were damaged from consuming large amounts of it. I can't imagine humans doing this).
However, there are drug related interactions to consider, this info can be found on the net, but you'll want to be sure of the source you get it from...a lot of herbal "educational" pages simply represent vendors who wish to sell you herbs:)
Here's a link to some info on St. John's Wort, but there are many others:
http://www.salisbury.edu/nursing/herbalremedies/st__john's_wort.htm
I grow my St. John's Wort*, but www.mountainrose.com is where I buy any herb I that won't grow in my climate, their freshness and quality standards are excellent, and their storage facilities top-notch, according to my daughter, who lives up in Oregon.
*I had a hard time getting this plant, because it is on the list of invasive weeds in CA, many vendors won't send this plant to CA. I finally sent off overseas for some seed from relatives. There are vendors who will sell seed here to CA, if not the plants. Me, I keep mine potted and harvested, excepting the seed I keep for next year's SJW plants, I don't allow mine to spread.
I dunno, I can see how someone, not knowing the side effects of the plant but having heard it was useful in teas and even just raw, could eat enough to cause a problem. It tastes very good!