## 3 Results and Discussion  
The profile (RP-HPLC-FLD chromatogram) of toochromanols in the _H. perforatum_ inflorescence samples obtained by the saponification protocol can be seen in Figure 1. The chromatograms of hydroethanolic extracts from residues of St. John's wort tea infusions/water extracts can be found in the Supplementary Material (Figure S2). St. John's wort infloreses contained all eight analyzed toochromanols (four tocophenol and four tocotrienol homologues--\(\delta\), \(\gamma\), \(\beta\), and \(\alpha\)), where tocotrienols were the dominant part (64%). The percentages of individual tocotrienol homologues (\(\alpha\)/\(\beta\)/\(\gamma\)/\(\delta\)%) amounted to 21/0.5/2/41%, while in case of tocophenol homologues (\(\alpha\)/\(\beta\)/\(\gamma\)/\(\delta\)%), they were 27/1/7/1%. Similar findings in St. John's wort infloreses were reported previously [5]. Thus, the current study confirms the presence of eight tocochromanols in St. John's wort. The data obtained with the fluorescence detector were confirmed by a mass spectrometry (MS) study following the previous methodology [26]. The predominance of \(\delta\)-T3 is rare in natural products. The exceptions include anantto (_Bixa orellana_ L.) and lychee (_Litchi chinensis_ Sonn.) seeds and their oils, the richest known sources of \(\delta\)-T3 [27]. While hydrophilic compounds in general seem well studied [3], we know relatively little about lipophilic phytochemicals in the _Hypericum_ genus, even when they are the subject of research. In four Tunisian _Hypericum_ species--_H. perforatum_, _H. tomentosum_, _H. perfoliatum_, and _H. ericoides_--the composition of fatty acid and tocopherols was investigated; however, the occurrence of tocotrienols, as well as the occurrence of tocoperhorols, was not considered, despite the earlier discovery of \(\delta\)-T3 occurrence in _H. perforatum_[6]. The uniqueness of the _Hypericum_ genus has been previously reported, due to the presence of a relatively high concentration of tocotrienols in the leaves of seven species in one study [28] and in nine species and two hybrids in another investigation [29]. The latest study and the present study on _H. perforatum_ show that this medical plant is a relatively good source of tocotrienols [5]. The quantity of tocochromanols (total content) in the dry powder of _H. perforatum_ inflorescences was 83.56 mg/100 g dry weight (dw), where tocotrienols accounted for 53.62 mg/100 g dw (Table 1). To the best of our understanding, no tocotrienols have been reported to be dominant over the tocopherols in any of the medicinal plants, as a result of their rarity in nature. The water extracts (tea infusions) of St. John's wort did not contain tocochromanols as a result of their lipophilic character; however, the application of hydroethanolic solutions allowed for their recovery from the residues remaining after tea infusions. The 50.0% hydroethanolic solutions were not effective in tocochromanol recovery, and only a low  
Figure 1: Chromatograms of tocotrienol (T3) and tocopherol (T) homologue (\(\delta\), \(\gamma\), \(\beta\), and \(\alpha\)) separation by RP-HPLC-FLD in St. John’s wort (_H. perforatum_ L.) and standards. content of \(\delta\)-T3 (3% and 17% of the original content in plant material, respectively) was obtained. A breakthrough was obtained with the 70.0% hydroethanolic solution, which allowed for the recovery of all tocochromanols, however in a low origin content (10-20%), except for \(\delta\)-T3 (almost 50%) (Table 1, Figure 2). The most rapid increment in the recovery of tocochromanols was observed in a relatively short window of difference in ethanol concentration, 60-70% for tocotrienols and 70-80% for tocopherols. The highest recovery values of tocopherols and tocotrienols amounted to 15.75 mg/100 g dw (53%) and 35.51 mg/100 g dw (66%), respectively, for 96.2% hydroethanolic solutions. However, the differences between the 90.0% and 96.2% hydroethanolic solutions were not statistically significant (\(\alpha<\) 0.05) (Table 1, Figure 2).