When you squeeze the bright star-shaped yellow buds of the hardy perennial Hypericum perforatum, they yield a red juice that reminded medieval Europeans of the blood of John the Baptist. Valued for its magical healing powers, St. John's wort (a Middle English word for "plant"), as the shrub is commonly called, has been used since the time of ancient Greece for treating any number of ailments, from liver and bowel disorders to hysteria, obesity and insomnia.
But St. John's wort came into its own in 1984, when the German government classified it as an MAO inhibitor, on the basis of...
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