melissa officinalis
FOLK NAMES
Lemon Balm
Sweet Balm
Balm mint
Bee balm
Blue balm
Cure-all
Dropsy plant
Garden balm
Honey plant
Melissa
ASTROLOGY
Herb of Jupiter and under Cancer and strengthens
the body in all its actions.
Legends, Myths and Stories
The great Paracelsus called this herb
the elixir of life, and combined it with carbonate
of potash in a mixture known as Primum Ens Melissae.
It is recorded that one of Louis XIV's physicians,
Lesebure, tried this out on an elderly chicken,
which within a few days lost its tattered plumage,
grew fresh feathers and started to lay eggs again.
He had earlier tried it, with equally dramatic results,
on two old servants, but did not complete the experiment.
Another of Paracelsus's elixirs,
the Primum Ens Sanquinis,
contained human blood and Alcahest,
a universal medicine based on caustic lime,
alcohol and carbonate of potash.
Eau de Carmes, a fashionable 17th century perfume,
was a distillation of balm leaves and spirits of wine,
to which were added lemon peel, nutmeg,
cloves and cinnamon.
Balm oil is still a favorite scent
throughout the Middle East.
The botanical name melissa
is from the Greek word for honey.
Bees are particularly fond of this plant.
Among the ancient Greeks it was a practice
to place sprigs of balm
in bee hives to attract a swarm.
John Hussey of Sydenham, England,
who lived to the age of 116, breakfasted
for 50 years on balm tea sweetened with honey,
and the herb teas were the usual
breakfasts of Llewelyn,
Prince of Glamorgan, who lived to 108.
Other amazing powers of longevity
have been ascribed to lemon balm.
Balm and bees have been linked since ancient times.
Melissa comes from the Greek for "honey bee",
and lemon balm has the same healing and tonic
properties as honey and royal jelly.
Gerard said the the herb
"comforteth the hart and driveth away all sadnesse,"
and it was a favorite in medieval "elixirs of youth;"
the alchemist Paracelsus made a preparation
called primum ens melissae, and even
in the 18th century,
it was still thought to "renew youth."
Originally grown in the Orient,
Arab traders introduced this herb to Spain.
It was later brought to Germany
by Benedictine monks.
Still popular in Europe, lemon balm is now grown
in parts of the United States.
The famous 17th century herbalist Culpeper
thought so highly of lemon balm that he wrote,
"Let a syrup made with the juice of it and sugar...
be kept in every gentle woman's house
to relieve the neighbours."
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