Torsten Posted September 3, 2006 It appears melatonin has been foudn in St John's Wort. I wonder how much this contributes to the antidepressant effect ascribed to the herb, and how much we are missing out on by taking refined extracts that just aim to extract the hypericin. ROLE OF INDOLEAMINES IN REGULATION OF MORPHOGENESIS IN IN VITRO CULTURES OF ST. JOHN'S WORT (HYPERICUM PERFORATUM L.) S.J. Murch, P.K. Saxena The presence of indoleamines and their potential role in morphogenesis in vitro was investigated in axenic cultures of St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum L. New Stem). De novo shoot regeneration was induced on etiolated hypocotyl explants after 9 days of exposure to thidiazuron (5 µmol/L). Melatonin, a tryptophan-derived mammalian neurohormone was quantified in leaf, flower, stem, and etiolated hypocotyls. Radiolabel from 14C-tryptophan was recovered as 14C-melatonin in sterile plantlets indicating endogenous synthesis of this compound in St. John’s wort. Application of inhibitors of mammalian neuro-processes including: p-chlorophenylalanine, d-amphetamine, Prozac™, Ritalin™ and hydralazine modulated regeneration and levels of endogenous auxin and indoleamines. Although there is no known role for melatonin in plant tissues, these data provide an indication that the balance of the endogenous concentrations of serotonin and melatonin may play a role in in vitro plant morphogenesis. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ramon Posted September 8, 2006 Kind of suprised that there wasn't more discussion regarding this. Is there any other plant which have been found to have melatonin in them Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Torsten Posted September 8, 2006 Kind of suprised that there wasn't more discussion regarding this. yeah, me too. Maybe we need to mention that melatonin is hydrolysed to 5MeO-tryptamine, which appears to be somewhat trippy when MAO inhibited Is there any other plant which have been found to have melatonin in them The stuff I used to buy was labelled as derived from soy beans. Not sure if that requires chemical intervention or not though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
coin Posted September 8, 2006 i thought lots of plants contained traces of melatonin...cow's milk also this may be off topic -- but i read recently about some research into which breeds of milking cows produced a "morning milk" that was exceptionally higher in melatonin .. milk from these cows was being marketed as a "bed time" milk because it also contains a decent amount of tryptophan per serving, and the uptake is enhanced by sweetening Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
apothecary Posted September 8, 2006 I found this extremely interesting, and was waiting for someone with more chemistry knowledge to post before I did. Here are my questions: Doesn't this essentially mean, we no longer need to be importing melatonin? Can someone legally begin farming, processing, and selling standardised Hypericium concentrates that have the hypericin removed? Due to the extreme weediness of this plant, is growing it even legal? I imagine that a standard A/B using the most recent techniques will actually allow a high purity melatonin result? Do you have any guesses as to the quantitative results of this experiment T? Even if the amounts are relatively low coin, the good thing is only a few mg of melatonin is required per dose! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
coin Posted September 9, 2006 Do you have any guesses as to the quantitative results of this experiment T? Even if the amounts are relatively low coin, the good thing is only a few mg of melatonin is required per dose! right..but i couldn't never find much in the way of analysis saying how much melatonin was in various plants. it's often mentioned that rice contains melatonin http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.f...st_uids=7773197 no idea if it's a siginifcant amount though this study is on grapes: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin...650315/ABSTRACT Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tomer Corymbosa Posted September 9, 2006 we are missing out on by taking refined extracts that just aim to extract the hypericin Torsten,not only the hypericin has the anti depressant effect. scientists have discovered that Hyperforin has much better anti depressant effect than hypericin. today ,the new high quality commercial extracts made by 0.3% hypericin and 3.0% hyperforin. - these are much much better extracts than only 0.3% hypericin. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
