St. John’s wort oil is one of my most used home remedies! It is a superb massage oil, but it also helps with cuts and scrapes, minor burns, and muscle pain. Actually, I can talk for several hours about all the situations I’ve seen this oil help… but let’s just talk about five St. John’s wort oil uses…
Just to be clear, we are not talking about essential oil here at all. I am talking about using St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum) infused oil that you can make in your own kitchen.
1. Minor Burns
St. John’s wort oil is an amazing home remedy for minor burns. It helps to stop the pain and heal the burn.
I have multiple stories about people who have turned their first degree burns around using St. John’s wort oil. Like when my husband burned his hand on the stove or when I burnt the heck out of my arm in the sauna, or…
The trick to using St. John’s wort oil for burns is to apply it to the burn right away. Get a bowl or basin, and soak the burned area, or use an oil-soaked muslin cloth and keep it applied to the area for one hour. Apply it several times during the first day of being burned.
2. Muscle Pain
St. John’s wort oil helps with muscle strain and tension. The more you use it, the better it is. You can massage it into tense, sore muscles several times a day and it helps to relax the muscles.
Many years ago, I worked in a chiropractor’s office doing massage. I used my homemade St. John’s wort infused oil on all my clients there; many of them had severe whiplash. People started calling my St. John’s wort oil the “chiropractor oil” because it helped them so much. They joked that it was like having a chiropractor in a jar. That sounds a little weird, but you know what I mean!
3. Growing Pains
You may not need this remedy, but if you know a child that does, it is a great way to teach them about natural remedies and how they can take care of themselves.
My son has painful growing pains that have him crying in the night. He keeps a bottle of St. John’s wort oil by his bed and believe me, he uses it! It has calmed his growing pains and put him back to sleep more times than I can count. You know something is happening when he packs this oil in his backpack for his overnight camping trips…
4. Cuts, Scrapes and Scratches
St. John’s wort oil also has uses and benefits for the skin. St. John’s wort has a vulnerary action, which means it helps the skin to regenerate and heal.
As always, make sure your cuts and scrapes are well cleaned, and then you can apply St. John’s wort oil to help it heal quicker. The one contraindication here is that I only apply the oil when I am at home and can keep things clean. Oil can attract dirt, so you don’t want oil on your scratches attracting dirt when you are running around outside. I make sure everything is clean and then apply the oil several times a day to help heal the scrapes and scratches.
5. Scars
If you apply St. John’s wort oil several times a day to a cut, it will reduce the scarring. St. John’s wort oil is anti-inflammatory, so it reduces the redness and inflammation that can contribute to a scar. It can also help reduce old scars. It doesn’t get rid of them completely, but it helps.
Once I had a student show our class a scar from an appendix removal. She showed us the scar and then 6 weeks later showed it to use after applying the oil 3 times a day for 6 weeks. Wow, everyone was amazed the scar was smaller and much less red.
How to Make St. John’s Wort Oil
As you can see, there are many St. John’s wort oil uses! The problem is that the best St. John’s wort infused oil is made with fresh flowers, and that only happens once a year in the summer.
With all the great success stories, everyone wanted Saint John’s wort oil! Every year I would run out of oil right around early spring.
So each year, I made more and more oil. I’ve made St. John’s wort oil every single summer for 25 years and now, I make about 3 gallons at a time…
What’s the big deal about making your own St. John’s wort oil?
Well, like I said, it’s only harvested once a year for a very short period of time. You either make it or you don’t.
And if you don’t make it, then you have to buy it.
At around $15 an ounce, what that means is that you won’t have enough on hand when you really need it. Or if it’s springtime, many suppliers are out of it and you can’t even get it.
The thing is, if you’ve got something going on that’s really a job for St. John’s wort oil, you usually need quite a bit of it and it’s just not an affordable oil to use in large quantities…
Unless… You make it yourself!
If you would like to learn how to easily and inexpensively make your own St. John’s wort oil, click here to see how you can join me.
St. John’s wort oil is just one of the oils we’ll be making together in my online course, Handcrafted Healing Herbal Oils, where you will learn how to make herbal infused oils that are what I call the affordable, least amount of effort for maximum return home remedy.
In Handcrafted Healing Herbal Oils, you will…
- Learn the simple step-by-step process for making herb infused oils
- See the most effective methods for creating and preserving your oils so they don’t go rancid (NO moldy oils!)
- Understand how to use herb infused oils for first aid, common ailments, massage and relaxing self-care
I can’t wait to share one of my favorite natural remedies with you!
Hi Kami, When you make your St. John’s oil, do you first add a bit of alcohol and have that sit one night before you add the oil?
I cover all the nuances of making SJW oil and others in my Healing Herbal Oils class. If you are interested, you can find out more information here: https://healingherbaloils.com/evergreen-enroll
Hi, Kami! I recently infused dried St. John’s Wort in olive oil but the oil didn’t turn red. The herb was from Mountain Rose, so I am confident that it is good. Do you have any insight into why it didn’t turn red? Is it because it was dried, maybe? Thanks for your help and for sharing your herbal wisdom!
Yes, it is more of a brown with a hint of red when using dried St. John’s wort.
Time ti go harvest it, and make my oil!
I have a question a d I realise you’ve answered it partly already, I can’t find any info on the effects on any meds, using the topical application of the oil. Could you elaborate? Specifically anti depressants and blood pressure medications
Hi Rache, the topical use of the oil does not affect your medication use
Hi, Kami,
I’m wondering about the st. john’s wort plant. Do you have to use the flowers from wild plants, or will the ones you get from the garden nurseries also work?
Thanks in advance.
You have to make sure you have the correct plant: Hypericum perforatum. It can be wild or home grown, however most St. John’s wort at nurseries is not Hypericum perforatum unless it is an medicinal herb nursery
Ah, that’s what I wondered. Thanks so much!
Hi,
I understand that you can best make things from St. John’s wort with the fresh flower, rather than dried. I live in Alberta, and I read that it’s not allowed to be planted here. Is there any point in making infused oils with the dried St. John’s Wort? Also, because I am in Canada, we can only buy 80 proof alcohol. Is it going to do the job of adding it to herbal preparations at 100 proof, do you think?
I love watching your videos, and learning from you. Thanks for all your hard work.
HI Linda,
Yes, you can make your oil with 80 proof alcohol, many people do that. You do the best you can with the ingredients you can get.
And i know, fresh St. John’s wort is all the rage… However, I have talked to many people that cannot get fresh St. John’s wort and have been making oil with dried St. John’s wort for years and love how the oil works, so go for it!
hi there i have a question can the oil have all the effects the the pills do ? can it interaction with the medications and cause more harm like the pills can
HI Louise,
I have not seen any reference to the herbal infused oil affecting medication use
Are you aware of its use for relief of shingles?
Yes! I have seen many people have amazing results using St. John’s wort for shingles
How is it used for shingles?
Hi Vicki, I have seen people benefit from applying the oil directly to the affected area
can I mix it with other oils for hair?
thanks
Yes, you can mix it with other oils. Rosemary infused oil (not essential oil) is good for the hair
i have a question, i have nerve pain, but i am not sure if i can put pure st john’s wort into oil diffuser?
thank you!