Combinations - St john's wort and Caffeine, WHAT!?

[Akewstick]

SWIM was reading another drugs forum, populated entirely (or so it would seem) by idiots, whose purpose there was to brag about how much cough medicine they could drink, and how much pot they could smoke.

SWIM was about to close the window and go about his business when he came across a thread about no doz and St john's wort.

To cut a long story short: this thread claimed that mixing in excess of 800mg of caffeine (and then, i think some red bull), 4 St john's wort tablets and some weed produced some pretty impressive effects.

It also said that St john's wort and Caffeine "potentiated each other".

It all seemed pretty spurious to me, espescially seeing as there was weed involved in the mix, it may just have been the ramblings of a stoned person.

None-the-less, SWIM's high-craving side got the best of him (as it always does), and he's looked around for more info on it, but found none.

Does SWIY know about this? True? False? True but shit?

Any info appreciated.

[Alfa]

Define St john's wort tablets. Must be some strong alkaloid targeted extract in there.

[Akewstick]

Define St john's wort tablets. Must be some strong alkaloid targeted extract in there.

Ahha, may well be. I assumed the person was talking about an interaction between the herb St John's wort and caffeine, and was looking for info about that.

SWIM dosen't know what else is in various St john's wort tablets.

Is SWIAlfa saying that it must be something else in the tablets and not the St John's Wort that's interacting with the Caffeine or the pot?

[Alfa]

I have no clue, but 3 tablets containing a few hundred mg of st. johns wort will not do anything. 3 tablets containing a high concentrated may give some interaction. Caffeïne just increases the absorbtion in the bowels.

[Nagognog2]

Hypericin (main chem. from St. John's Wort) is quite the powerful molecule, with a most interesting molecular structure. I hope some idiot isn't make mega-strong pills out of it.

It is an experimental anti-neoplastic in cancer research - or was the last time I looked - for glioma (brain cancer). I don't want to think what repeated massive doses would do. But, knowing the other forum mentioned, I rather doubt it could cause any harm to their average members.

[Alfa]

Would an overkill of anti-neoplastic activity affect the generative functions?

[Nagognog2]

Unknown in this case. Possibly - or possibly cause what it might cure.

[Forthesevenlakes]

St. John's Wort has some MAOI properties, if I'm not mistaken. Perhaps this could have had an effect with the caffeine or the ingredients of the red bull, if there was a concentrated enough amount in the pills. Personally the only thing SWIM has found remarkable about St. John's Wort is that it doesnt work, but perhaps enough of it could interact with the caffeine. 800 mgs is alot of caffeine though anyway, it could have just been a high dose of that that the test rat was feeling here.

[Nicaine]

Originally Posted by Forthesevenlakes

St. John's Wort has some MAOI properties, if I'm not mistaken.

That was an earlier belief, but I think after doing more research they concluded that it doesn't inhibit MAO. Supposedly it operates on all three neurotransmitters, serotonin/ dopamine/ norepinephrine. It's pretty mild stuff at regular dosages. SWIM has taken it in the past for mild seasonal depression. He can feel the effects while on it (hard to describe), but not strongly or intensely as is typical from Wellbutrin or the SSRI's.

[Alfa]

Megadose of st. Johnsworth