“And balm-breathing, faint mignonett, Oh! the cool-flowing, gentle Blackwater, And beams that light up its dark side, As it flows o’er the low meadow-inches, The groves of St Carthagh beside, When delirium brings gaunt shapes around me, And my temples throb wild in their pain, Oh! Blackwater, a dream of your flowin, Would bring rest to my spirit again…”
Ann Coghlan, County Waterford, 1930’s
Cover art by George Henry Grenville Manton
Lemon Balm or Melissa officinalis is also called common balm, melissa balm or just balm. It’s called lus na malla or ìocshlaint in Gaeilge and bailm in Scots Gaelic. The genus name comes from the Greek word Melissa which means ‘bee’ and who was also one of the great female warriors that helped save Zeus from his father and fed him milk and honey. Its common name of course stems from the fresh lemon flavor and scent. During the summer, small white flowers appear that bees in particular really love, so much so in fact that beekeepers often use it to keep bees from swarming away from their hive. Lemon balm is one of the herbs I use the most simply because of its wonderful flavor combined with powerful medicinal benefits. I often use it in infusions with other herbs as a means of flavoring, particularly with mint varieties after a heavy meal to settle my stomach. I particularly love lemon balms’ vivacity and how it tends to last much longer than even other mint varieties in colder temperatures. Often I’m picking fresh leaves through December if I’ve had a mild autumn.
Dioscorides mentioned lemon balm being called merisimorion by the Gauls and was used to treat scorpion, spider and dog bites as well as inducing menstrual flow and treating toothaches, ulcers, tumors and gout. Eventually, through trade, it made it’s way to Britain and Ireland where it became a very popular cottage garden herb by the 16th century.
In Ireland, it was used to treat uterine disorders, wounds, heart ailments, head and nervous conditions, smallpox, measles, and the stings of bees and wasps1, kidney and liver troubles2, fevers3, colds, sore throat4, headaches, anxiety5 as well as just used as a common tea.6 It was also said that balm growing on the land was a sign of good soil.7 In England, a syrup was made from the herb that was said to be kept in every gentlewoman’s house to relieve weak stomachs and sick bodies or neighbors. It was said to ‘reviveth the heart’ and help with sleep and anxiety.8
A lovely folktale was told concerning the balm’s healing power where the story goes that long ago there lived a man in France who had only one daughter. Three suitors came and asked the man for his daughter’s hand in marriage. He told them to let her choose and to that she replied, I need all three. The father was annoyed at her response and sent the men out to seek their fortune and whoever was luckiest could come back and shall marry her. So the three men set out and in some time landed on a foreign and unknown shore. They met a poor man selling his wares who asked the first suitor to buy his mirror. The suitor asked “Of what use is it to me?” The man replied, “Well, you can see who so ever you wish to see.”
So the first man bought the mirror. The next day, the old poor man asked the second suitor, “Will you buy this box of balm from me?” The second suitor asked the same and the man said, “Well, it has the power to raise the dead to life.” So the second suitor bought the box of balm. The next day, the third suitor was walking along the beach when he saw a box floating on the water. It came to shore and the came off and out jumped a man who exclaimed, “Five minutes ago I left France, now will you buy it?” to insinuate it was also a magic box. So the third suitor bought the magic box. The next day the three suitors compared their newly purchased treasures. The first looked in the mirror and saw the girl back home dead. The second suitor said, “Well, let’s take this balm back home and try to save her.” So the jumped in the third suitor’s box that carried them all the way back to France in five minutes. They placed the balm on the girl’s lips saving her to which she arose smiling and said, “See father, I needed all three.”9
Lemon balm is a perennial plant in the Lamiaceae family and native to south-central Europe, the Mediterranean and Central Asia, but has become naturalized in the Americas and elsewhere. Lemon balm has oval toothed leaves with small trumpet shaped white flowers that typically bloom throughout the summer, peaking in July, and it may have been associated with Bealtaine or the Summer Solstice. It’s a perennial in zones 5 through 9, grows up to 121 cm or 4 ft and does well in part shade to full sun and well drained or loamy soil. Lemon balm’s energy is cool and moist. The leaves and flowers are edible and have a lemon and subtly sweet flavor. It’s most commonly used as an infusion, flavoring and poultice.
Benefits
A.D.H.D. and A.D.D. alterative, antibacterial, anticancer and antitumor, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antispasmodic, antiviral, anxiety alterative, blood tonic, calmative, carminative, diaphoretic, digestive tonic, heart tonic, hormonal tonic, hypnotic, liver tonic, neural tonic, neuroprotective, radiation preventative, skin tonic, thyroidal tonic
Recipe
Lemon Balm Calming Infusion
Ingredients: 1/2 tsp. lemon balm, 1/2 tsp. chamomile, 1/2 tsp. vervain
Instructions: Mix 8 – 16 oz. or 1 – 2 cups of boiling water and herbs together. Let simmer for at least 10 minutes up to 1 hour. Strain and drink slowly.
References
- K’ Eogh, John, Botanologia Universalis Hibernica, or An Irish Herbal, Cork, 1735, edited by Michael Scott, 1986, pg. 25.
- Irish Folk Duchas, The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0595, Page 266
- Irish Folk Duchas, The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0595, Page 266
- Irish Folk Duchas, The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0847, Page 100
- Irish Folk Duchas, The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0858, Page 094
- Irish Folk Duchas, The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0305, Page 117
- Irish Folk Duchas, The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1018, Page 189
- Culpeper, Nicholas, The Complete Herbal, London, 1653, pg. 36.
- Irish Folk Duchas, The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1015, Page 073