Contents:
Common Names | Parts Usually Used | Plant(s) & Culture | Where Found | Medicinal Properties | Biochemical Information
Legends, Myths and Stories | Uses | Formulas or Dosages | How Sold | Resource Links | Bibliography
Scientific Names
- Melissa officinalis L.
- Labiatae
- Mint family
Common Names
- Balm mint
- Bee balm
- Blue balm
- Cure-all
- Dropsy plant
- Garden balm
- Honey plant
- Lemon balm
- Melissa
- Sweet balm
Parts Usually Used
Herb, leaves
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Description of Plant(s) and
Culture
Balm is a perennial plant; the stem is upright, hairy, quadrangular, and branched and grows as high as
When bruised, the whole plant smells like lemon.
The leaves of this plant, similar in appearance to those of Catnip, are best identified by the strong, pleasant lemony scent.
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Where Found
Common in the Mediterranean area and the Near East but is also naturalized to some places in the United States. Mostly, it is cultivated as a culinary herb, but it grows wild in fields, barnyards, old house sites, open woods, gardens and along roadsides, from Maine to Florida and west to Kansas.
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Medicinal Properties
Antispasmodic, antiviral, calmative, carminative, diaphoretic, emmenagogue, stomachic, febrifuge, sedative, antidepressant, nervine
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Biochemical Information
Volatile oil (including citronellal), polyphenols, tannins, bitter principle, flavonoids, rosmarinic acid
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Legends, Myths and Stories
The great Paracelsus called this herb the elixir of life, and combined it with carbonate of potash in a mixture known as Primum Ens Melissae. It is recorded that one of Louis XIV’s physicians, Lesebure, tried this out on an elderly chicken, which within a few days lost its tattered plumage, grew fresh feathers and started to lay eggs again. He had earlier tried it, with equally dramatic results, on two old servants, but did not complete the experiment. Another of Paracelsus’s elixirs, the Primum Ens Sanquinis, contained human blood and Alcahest, a universal medicine based on caustic lime, alcohol and carbonate of potash.
Eau de Carmes, a fashionable 17th century perfume, was a distillation of balm leaves and spirits of wine, to which were added lemon peel, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon. Balm oil is still a favorite scent throughout the Middle East.
The botanical name melissa is from the Greek word for honey. Bees are particularly fond of this plant. Among the ancient Greeks it was a practice to place sprigs of balm in bee hives to attract a swarm.
John Hussey of Sydenham, England, who lived to the age of 116, breakfasted for
Balm and bees have been linked since ancient times. Melissa comes from the Greek for “honey bee”, and lemon balm has the same healing and tonic properties as honey and royal jelly. Gerard said the the herb “comforteth the hart and driveth away all sadnesse,” and it was a favorite in medieval “elixirs of youth;” the alchemist Paracelsus made a preparation called primum ens melissae, and even in the 18th century, it was still thought to “renew youth.”
Originally grown in the Orient, Arab traders introduced this herb to Spain. It was later brought to Germany by Benedictine monks. Still popular in Europe, lemon balm is now grown in parts of the United States. The famous 17th century herbalist Culpeper thought so highly of lemon balm that he wrote, “Let a syrup made with the juice of it and sugar…be kept in every gentle woman’s house to relieve the neighbours.”
Essential oil: the concentrated essence of lemon balm has the same properties as the leaves but is far more potent; a few drops make an excellent antidote to depression. Pure essential oil is difficult to obtain commercially; it is often adulterated with lemon or lemongrass oils.
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Uses
Balm is a remedy for common female complaints and is useful for all sorts of nervous problems, hysteria, melancholy, and insomnia. Use balm tea to relieve cramps, dyspepsia, flatulence, colic, liver, spleen, bladder troubles, chronic bronchial catarrh, and some forms of asthma. Try it also for migraine and toothache, and, during pregnancy, for headaches, tension, and dizziness. The warm infusion has diaphoretic effects. An infusion of the leaves added to bath water is also said to promote the onset of menstruation. It is a cooling drink for feverish colds fever, and flu. Use the crushed leaves as a poultice for sores, tumors, swellings, milk-knots, and insect bites. Balm promotes sweating, and is a valuable stand-by when fever is present. Balm is also used in herb pillows because of its agreeable odor.
Experimentally, hot-water extracts have been shown strongly antiviral for Newcastle disease, herpes, mumps; also antibacterial, antihistaminic, antispasmodic, and anti-oxidant.
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Formulas or Dosages
Collect the plant before or after flowering. The fresh plant is more effective than the dried.
Infusion: use
Cold extract: use
Extract: mix
Use the dried herb to make tea, or drink
Tincture: the dose is
Powder: take
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How Sold
Sold in commercial antiviral preparations in Germany.
This herb is widely available in tea, dried herb, and extract.
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Resource Links
LiveStrong.com: Lemon Balm Tea in Pregnancy
University of Maryland Medical Center: Lemon Balm
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Sleep Disorders
Bibliography
Back to Eden
American Folk Medicine
Culpeper’s Complete Herbal & English Physician: Updated With 117 Modern Herbs
The Complete Medicinal Herbal
Earl Mindell’s Herb Bible
The Herbalist Almanac
The Herb Book
Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants
The Nature Doctor: A Manual of Traditional and Complementary Medicine
The Magic of Herbs
The Yoga of Herbs: An Ayurvedic Guide to Herbal Medicine
Webster’s New World Dictionary
An Instant Guide to Medicinal Plants
The Magic of Herbs in Daily Living
The Rodale Herb Book: How to Use, Grow, and Buy Nature’s Miracle Plants (An Organic gardening and farming book)
