LEMON BALM / BEE BALM (Melissa officinalis)

The Romans brought Lemon Balm to Britain (43 AD – 410 AD) along with stinging nettles, cabbages, onions & garlic, rabbits & cats.

In permanent Roman military hospitals, rainwater containing Melissa Officinalis (Lemon Balm) and vinegar (acetum) was used by a detachment of soldiers daily to clean the entire hospital, especially the surgical suite…  Medical Anesthesia and Surgery in Ancient Rome, Brewminate, Dr Valentine J. Belfiglio, Professor of Political Science, Texas Women’s University, Mozilla Firefox

“Bees are delighted with this herbe above all others… when they are straid away, they do finde their way home againe by it.”    “It is of so great virtue that though it be but tied to his sword that hath given the wound it stauncheth the blood.”

Pliny the Elder     Roman     23 or 24 AD – 79 AD

“Balm, being leaves steeped in wine, and the wine drunk and the leaves applied externally, were considered to be a certain cure for the bites of venomous beasts and the stings of scorpions.”

Dioscorides       Greek     40 AD – 90 AD

Lemon balm was the main ingredient in Carmelite Water, crafted in 1379 by French nuns at the Abbey of St Just as a healing tincture for King Charles V (1338-1380). It was afterwards sold commercially as Eau de Carmes.

“...formerly a spirit of Balm, combined with lemon-peel, nutmeg and angelica root, enjoyed a great reputation under the name of Carmelite Water, being deemed highly useful against nervous headache and neuralgic affections.”       Maud Grieve, A Modern Herbal, 1931   

“Lemon balm is most popular as an ingredient of herb teas, having a pleasant flavour and calming effect.”  Paracelsus  (Swiss)  (1493-1541) called it “the elixir of life“..

Deni Bown, RHS Encyclopedia of Herbs & Their Uses

“It is profitably planted where bees are kept. The hives of bees being rubbed with the leaves of bawme, causeth the bees to keep together, and causeth others to come with them.”                   

John Gerard     English     1545 – 1612 

“It causeth the Mind and Heart to become merry, and reviveth the Heart fainting to foundlings, especially of such who are overtaken in their sleep, and driveth away all troublesome cares and thought..”

                                         Nicholas Culpeper       English      1616 – 1654

“Balm is sovereign for the brain, strengthening the memory and powerfully chasing away melancholy.”

John Evelyn     English     1620 – 1706

Maria Clementine Martin      Belgian      1775 – 1843

Creator of Klosterfrau Melissengeist, the German variation of Carmelite Water. She distilled and refined it herself in the 1800s, using Lemon Balm & essential oils of 13 medicinal plants such as gentian, cardamom, cinnamon & ginger. The water is still sold by the successor to the company she founded, the Klosterfrau Healthcare Group.            WIKIPEDIA

Melissa Officinalis was the miracle ingredient in a ‘miracle water’ dispensed by French Carmelite nuns up to the 17th century. ‘It was thought to improve memory and vision and reduce rheumatic pain,  fever, melancholy and congestion.

Today, Lemon Balm is found in both England and North America. It was brought by colonialists who had come to rely on it for teas and flavoring. The gardens of US President Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826) were filled with lemon balm. By this point it was a well-known herb important to culinary and herbal medicinal usage.

Lemon Balm History : Healing and Restorative Powers – Cloverleaf Farm, Herbal Apothecary, Mozilla Firefox

“It is now recognised as a scientific fact that the balsamic oils of aromatic plants make excellent surgical dressings: they give off ozone and thus exercise anti-putrescent effects. Being chemical hydrocarbons, they contain so little oxygen that in wounds dressed with the fixed balsamic herbal oils, the atomic germs of disease are starved out, and the resinous parts of these balsamic oils, as they dry upon the sore or wound, seal it up and effectually exclude all noxious air.”

Maud Grieve     British     1858 – 1948