This is screwed up! I have the Repairing the Phial quest going & I haven't gotten any of the other items yet. I went after the Briar Heart first, killed the Briar and took his heart from Sundered Towers (where the quest pointed me to). However, after I grabbed the heart, it never acknowledged that I retreived it. What in the world?! However, it got stuck in my inventory (saying it's a quest item). The other issue is, once I grabbed it, it doesn't acknowledge that I have it & the arrow still points to the Briar (as if it's telling me to take the heart). Why is it like this? I even tried to reload my saved game from before I even started the quest & it still did the same thing when I tried it again & again. What's the deal? And how do I get around this problem? It's driving me nuts!

That happened to me before; I never got it fixed until I updated Skyrim, so you may be stuck with it permanently.
(Don't pick up any other briar hearts cause they'll glitch and just add to being a 'quest item')

If you're pc you may be able to fix it but if you're console you're stuck.

i cant drop briar hearts after completeing the quest

You are new, here is your fishystick

http://images.uesp.net/c/c4/Fishystick.jpg

You do know you don't have to take the Briar Heart from a Forsworn, right? I mean any old Briar Heart will do. I've done this quest a couple times and never had to kill anybody to get one, usually I already have one in my inventory that I picked up somewhere or bought from an alchemy shop.

That doesn't mean you won't have the same problem, since I don't know if it's related to that one particular quest location that you're getting pointed to for it. It could glitch up on any Briar Heart you have or find. But it might be worth reloading (if you're going to have to do that anyway) and just getting a Briar Heart somewhere else - hit up the alchemy shops - and having it already in your inventory before you're told to go get it.

can i get some tartar sauce please!!