St. John’s Wort Sales Soar by Nearly 1,000%

With recent, seemingly ongoing coverage in the national media, the trinity of American health concerns—weight loss, depression and anti-aging—are driving sales for herbal supplement manufacturers.

Sales of diet aids in the U.S. tip the scales at $5.6 billion a year. Now, with the latest recall of popular pharmaceutical diet aids Redux and “fen-phen” because of evidence that the products can cause lung and heart problems, Americans are turning to herbal-based alternatives.

Twin Lab’s Herbal PhenFuel with St. John’s wort (Hypericum) and bitter orange is expected to snare $25 million for the Ronkonkoma, NY-based manufacturer this year, according to Steve Blechman, Twin’s executive VP. Universal Nutrition Corp. in New Brunswick, NJ, manufactures herbal diet aids for natural products companies and saw a 15% hike in its sales during August alone. Weider introduced its PhenCal in May, and its sales “quadrupled to $1 million a week” after the diet drug scare hit national headlines, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Sales this year of St. John’s wort in the U.S. were $13 million, according to the Omaha World-Herald, but in Germany, sales of St. John’s wort as an anti-depressant are about $72 million a year. In natural products stores, sales of St. John’s wort grew 969.9% during the six months ending August 1997 vs. the same period one year ago, according to Spence Information Services (SPINS) in San Francisco. The herb is popularly used for depression but can boost serotonin levels in the brain, much like in the now-banned fen-phen.

But the 18 million Americans seeking help for depression are small-dividend demographics compared to the number of Americans who are seeking relief for symptoms associated with aging. Since 1990, the U.S. population over the age of 65 has increased by a factor of 11, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and may more than double again to about 80 million by the year 2050. Consequently, ginkgo sales have skyrocketed. Great Earth Vitamin Stores reported a 28% increase in ginkgo sales in 1997. Blechman at Twinlab reports that sales of ginkgo products for the company rose 600% from January to September.

According to SPINS, sales of brain/circulation herbs, such as ginkgo and gotu kola, increased 28.5% in natural products stores during the six-month period ending August 1997 as compared to the same period one year ago. Ginkgo sales in all outlets reached $66 million in the 52-week period ending Sept. 7, according to a Business Wire release. In Germany, sales of ginkgo soared to $163 million in 1996.