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Lemon Balm

Posting Date: 08/19/2002

Lemon balm is originally a native of the Mediterranean area and western Asia, but it has long been popular in Western Europe, including England.

Lemon balm is frequently used as an attractive edible garnish, and it can be made into tea. The leaves give off a delightful lemony aroma when they are crushed or torn before the flowers appear, but the taste and odor are altered after flowering.

Lemon balm, which has also been referred to as bee balm, sweet balm, or common balm, is used as a remedy for mild insomnia or for digestive discomfort and gas.

It has traditionally been used in herbal mixtures to disguise less pleasant tastes and smells. This may have given melissa something of a reputation as a cure-all.

The leaves, picked before flowering, are the part of the plant that is used. A cream containing lemon balm extract is used to treat cold sores topically.

Active Ingredients

The leaves of lemon balm contain a relatively small, but variable, amount of essential oil.

Agricultural researchers in New Zealand grew plants with approximately 0.02 percent essential oil.

Lemon balm grown in Spain contains up to 0.8 percent essential oil. The European standard calls for at least 0.05 percent essential oil.

The composition of the oil itself is complex, with more than seventy ingredients. Notable constituents include citronellal, geranial (citral a), and neral (citral b), which together offer most of the characteristic aroma.

Other components include flavonoids, especially apigenin, kaempferol, luteolin, and quercetin. Rosmarinic acid constitutes between 4 and 5 percent of lemon balm leaves, and there are small amounts of caffeic and chlorogenic acids. Triterpene compounds include ursolic and oleanolic acids.

Uses

Lemon balm is taken internally (usually as a tea or infusion) primarily for relaxation. Thus, The PDR for Herbal Medicines declares it is used for "nervous agitation, sleeping problems, and functional gastrointestinal complaints with meteorism" [flatulence]. "Functional" problems are those attributed in part to psychological factors such as stress.