Make sure you have the correct type of St. John's - Hypericum perforatum. There are ornamental cultivars that don't have the same medicinal quality. Generally, the tops of the flowering plants are picked at full bloom. When you pick, your fingers will turn purple or red from the oils. I suggest you find a good herbalist or other health care practitioner to help you with your anxiety. Tinctures are often the way this herb is dispensed. The standardization you refer to has been shown to be inaccurate. At first, it was thought that St. J should have 0.3% hypericum and many jumped on that bandwagon. Then, it was thought it was hyperiflouricin that was the active ingredient. Now, many are coming to realize what herbalists have said all along, there are many chemical constituents in whole plant extracts and we just don't know which ones to test for yet. Use the whole plant (good tincture) to get the full range of benefit and all the synergistic qualities. Good luck.

While St. John's wort has shown effectiveness in some studies for mild to moderate depression, I haven't seen any good evidence that it is effective in treating anxiety.

I'm also unaware of any research showing that whole plant extracts of SJW work better on any condition than specific ingredients, so documentation of this would be appreciated.

Thanks much guys-
My friend just showed me an herbal tea version of st johns(from yogi company) and one tea bag holds nearly the 900 grams of reccomended st johns serving, also present per serving is 27 grams of hympercum extract, do you think this is as much or good alternative as tinctures?