390 Handbook of herbs and spices
23.1 Introduction
Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis L.) belongs to the family Labiatae (Mint family) is
an aromatic and fairly hardy perennial sub-shrub. Some vernacular names are balm,
common balm, blue balm, dropsy plant, honey plant, Herzkraut, citronelle, cytria,
cedronella, badarendjabouya, alahana, mallisa, ogulotu, kovanotu, seiyo-yama-hakka,
sweet balm, limouna, limounneta, franjmeshk, toronjil, tronjan, turungan, melisso,
melliss, sidrunmeliss, Melissenblatter, Melissenkraut and Melissa (WHO, 2002).
Melissa officinalis L. consists of three subspecies, subsp. officinalis, subsp. inodora
and subsp. altissima (Mill, 1982; Craker and Simon, 1992). Among them, Melissa
officinalis subsp. officinalis is commonly used and has the characteristic lemony
taste and smell. Melissa is a Latin derivation of the Greek word for honeybee and
officinalis is the indication of its medicinal nature. It has been used in Mediterranean
region and Europe since the Middle Ages for several purposes such as regulating
sleep, appetite and digestion, reducing anxiety and a pain relief. Lemon balm has a
documented medicinal history extending back to 50–80 BC (Kennedy et al., 2003).
The London Dispensary (1696) stated, ‘An essence of Balm, given in Canary wine,
every morning will renew youth, strengthen the brain, relieve languishing nature and
prevent baldness’.
In Victorian times lemon balm was used as a symbolic plant for transmitting
messages between lovers. It was a symbol of sympathy and used to make soothing
medicines. In ancient times, it was also believed to drive away evil from a house
when it was grown in front of the door. Today, lemon balm naturally grows in various
parts of the world, including the eastern Mediterranean region, western Asia and
northern Africa (Simon et al., 1984). It was brought to America from Europe by
colonists and started to grow in their gardens. Today, it is one of the more widely
cultivated medicinal and aromatic plants in much of Europe and northern America.
Morphological features of lemon balm such as plant height, stem and leaf size
show a variation depending mainly upon genotype, environment or cultural applications
(Sari and Ceylan, 2002). In general, lemon balm can grow up to 1.5 m height and
23 Lemon balm..............................................................................................
H. Turhan, Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Turkey