Sorry another St Johns Wort question

[Glassofwine]

Following a couple of recent posts on here I went to get SJW today. I looked in Holland & Barratt and Boots to compare prices etc. The Boots own brand one said to take one tablet per day, they were 300mg tablets - The Holland & Barratt said to take one tablet three times per day and they were also 300mg. I bough the H&B ones as they were the less expensive option, but now I'm wondering about the dosage and there is quite a difference. Does anyone else know?

One of the problems with herbal remedies is that unlike the drugs made by the pharmacological industry it is very difficult to make sure that the dose is the same in every batch. The better makes are standardised on the main active constituent - it should state this on the label- although this doesn't cover the rest of the chemicals present in the remedy. The result is that different batches may differ in their strength to some degree. Different brands will vary even more - it is worth sticking to one brand of standardised SJW. The other variations which may occur are whole plant versus extract. You need to take more of the whole plant than the extract. Some people thinke that the whole plant is more effective since the effect of SJW like most herbs is dependent on a whole range of active substances in the herb whose total action may be more than the sum of the parts (so to speak), and an extract may contain fewer compounds or a different balance (depending on the process used and the solubility of the compounds)
I hope that this is clear - and helps.