Melissa/Lemon Balm

In my garden I have this mild mint that has a lemon taste to the leaves. She looks so innocent but just wait until I tell you about her; it will knock your socks off.

First I have to tell you about her name. It is an abbreviation of the Latin Melossophyllum, meaning bee plant. According to Simon & Schuster's Guide to Herbs and Spices, it was thought that if you rubbed the branches of Melissa over new hives, it would attract swarms of bees to start a new colony.

Lemon Balm originally came from Europe and has been naturalized in my area. These mints have a way of finding their own home wherever they are.

The leaves are opposite heart-shaped with "dentate-crenate" margins, which means that it has scalloped edges similar to its cousin, Catnip. On tasting the leaves you can tell the difference. The leaves are full of oil-bearing glands that give off a wonderful lemon taste/smell. This is due to the presence of ethereal oils, notably citral and citronellal. Citronellal being the oil that is widely used to repel bugs, this could tell you of one of the many great things for which you can use Melissa.

According to what I have read about this plant, one should replace the plants every five years, but in my garden it seems that they do this all by themselves. I only have to remove the older ones and I have more than enough two-foot high Lemon Balm plants.

The best time to harvest the leaves is just before, or at the time that flowers start to appear. I have found when you need the plant is really the best time to harvest. I always thank her for the leaves that I take, from Spring until Fall.

One of the experts on this plant is Dr. Varro E. Tyler, a Professor of Pharmacognosy at Purdue University. I decided to see what he had to say about this lovely garden plant. The first thing that I learned from him was that people have been using Lemon Balm for 20 centuries. There must be something important about it. He mentioned that it was a calming herb. It also has antibacterial properties. Now I am really excited.

This calmative effect that he speaks about is one of many uses. I like to cut some Melissa and stuff it into a clean sock, then dump the sock into my bath tub and I get to soak in a Lemon Balm tea. The whole tub is my tea cup. It is so relaxing that it is even suitable for small children. When taking a "Tub Tea" it is helpful to drink a cup of it also. (Not what is in the tub but a cup of Melissa Tea made before you hop in.) This allows the active ingredients to help from the inside also and Melissa does just that. Her properties tend to open the skin pores and allow the toxins in the body to exit while calming the whole body surface.

Once after going to get a massage from a "deep-muscle" masseuse, I went home with the idea that I needed to relax (For those of you who have never had a "Deep-muscle" massage; when you are done you know where every body part is; as they are all telling you that they have been moved about.) I ran a bath and decided that I would put Lemon Balm in the water. I cut two bundles and tied them together. As I was sitting in the water, I noticed that it was turning black. The massage oil was being pulled out into the bath water and the chemical reaction turned the water "Nylon stocking" black. I could still see through it but what a strange reaction.

Dr. Tyler also mentioned that, "In 1978 it was first demonstrated to have anti-viral activity. 'The caffeic acid oxidation product is said to inhibit not only herpes simplex type 1 virus, which causes cold sores, but the herpes simplex type 2 virus, which causes genital lesions' " He mentioned that in Europe "they are currently marketing a pharmaceutical product for use on both Herpes type 1 and type 2 using the concentrated extract of Melissa. " He mentioned that no side effects having been reported with this plant and its extracts.

It seems that this little mint is most powerful with anti-viral properties and mild enough for children. How silly I was just using it as a relaxing bath.

A friend of mine was trying to get and stay healthy by eating Garlic all the time. (We will explore Garlic in another article.) After a while her co-workers told her that if she was going to continue to eat Garlic, not to come to work. So she called upset and wanted to know what she could do as she felt that Garlic was really helping her. I told her to come over to my house and pick a bouquet of Lemon Balm from my garden. These could be placed in a vase on her desk and she can continue to eat the leaves until the bouquet is gone; then she could come back to pick another bouquet. She would have something so antiviral and so tasty and so lemony that no one could complain.

At our house, Lemon Balm is used over broiled fish to give it a little lemon flavor and a lot of antiviral, which my family doesn't have to know about. It can be added to soups, stews and salads.

The next time you find yourself facing a Lemon Balm plant, give her the respect that she deserves. She might look like just one of the "nice little" mints but she is powerful.