In particular, its ingredients were thought to relieve ulcers and gastritis, and the herb was called on as a folk medicine for diarrhea and nausea. Bruises and hemorrhoids are said to respond to it. It has served as a sedative, painkiller, and analgesic.
Herbalists credit it with increasing and inducing a sense of well-being.
In modern herbal medicine, St. John's wort is used first and foremost to treat depression. If you sought the guidance of an herbalist for the treatment of depression, the herbalist would almost invariably recommend hypericum first. As the medical studies on hypericum become better known to health care professionals, the use of hypericum may become the first line of treatment in traditional western medicine as well. Hypericum is currently being medically studied as a treatment for AIDS, several forms of cancer, bed wetting and night terrors in children, skin diseases such as psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, peptic ulcers, and even hangover. From the viewpoint of traditional western medicine, we seem only at the threshold of hypericum's proven usefulness.