A current update on phytochemistry, pharmacology and herb-drug interactions of Hypericum perforatum

Hypericum perforatum L. is an ethnomedicine with a popular remedial legacy; especially of antidepressant and wound healing properties. Rigorous preclinical and clinical research conducted in last sesqui-decade has revealed newer facets of its therapeutic activities against psychiatric, metabolic and neoplastic disorders. Most of such curative effects are imparted synergistically by hypericin, hyperforin and flavonoids; but their action mechanisms remain ambiguous. Concomitant administration of St. John's Wort formulation and cytochrome P450 substrate drug is limited by the episodes of herb-drug interactions; nevertheless, adverse drug reaction rate of H. perforatum remains only 2%. In present review, we aim to highlight the 'evidence-based' therapeutic potential of aforementioned phytopharmaceutical, which would accelerate the contemporary pharmaceutical development of this traditional phytomedicine.