Abstract
It has been shown that aqueous alcoholic extracts of Hypericum perforatum (St. John’s wort) are active in the forced swimming test (FST), an animal model for
antidepressant activity. In this study, a series of ethanolic and methanolic extracts
were investigated and, in almost all cases, the extracts showed strong activity. Only
one methanolic research extract had no effect in the in vivo pharmacological experiments. Analytical characterisation using HPLC showed that the
inactive extract had a reduced level of the diglycoside flavonoid rutin. Addition
of rutin to the inactive extract, to produce a concentration within the normal range,
resulted in a strong pharmacological effect comparable to that of the other extracts.
First experiments suggest that this re-activation is not dose-dependent, indicating
that rutin must be present above a threshold limit. It therefore appears vital that
extracts of St. John’s wort which are designed for the therapy of depressive disorders
should be manufactured using plant material with sufficient amounts of rutin.
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Dr. Michael Nöldner
Dr. Willmar Schwabe GmbH
Dept. of Pharmacology
Willmar Schwabe Straße 4
76227 Karlsruhe
Germany
Email: michael-noeldner@schwabe.de