It cut an HIV drug's blood level, lowest between doses
In eight healthy volunteers St John's Wort cut indinavir levels, and cut them furthest at the trough between doses where the drug keeps its grip on the virus.
What the study found
It strips protease inhibitors of the level that holds HIV down
St John's Wort cut blood levels of the HIV drug indinavir in healthy volunteers, and cut them furthest at the trough, the low point between doses where these drugs keep their grip on the virus. The authors warned the combination could produce resistance and treatment failure.
The caveat · Eight volunteers, none with HIV
Eight healthy volunteers rather than people with HIV, and no clinical outcome was measured: resistance and treatment failure are inferences from the size of the drop, not events anyone observed here. A correction to the original report was published a year later and has never been reconciled with its figures.