Herbs: Lemon Balm

As promised, here's a post to start telling you a little about some of the herbs I'm growing for medicinal purposes.  I decided to start with one of my most favorites:  Lemon balm.

Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) is in the mint family.  It has a square stem and opposite leaves just like regular mints.  When you first see a lemon balm plant, you'll probably think that it is a mint.  But rub a leaf and take a sniff - that delightful lemon fragrance is unmistakeable and unforgettable.  In fact, I could grow lemon balm just for its scent alone, it's that nice.  The leaves also have a lemony flavor with a minty undertone.

Lemon balm is easy to grow and doesn't really require any special attention.  I have successfully grown lemon balm from seed and from transplanting a young plant that I purchased.  It's a perennial and will come back year after year.  It is a mint and will take over if you don't keep it controlled.  I suggest planting it in a raised or contained bed.  When it gets over a foot tall, cut it back to 4-5 inches tall to encourage bushing out.  Here in East Tennessee, it is early July and I have already had 2 harvests from my lemon balm, and I'm about to cut it back again.  You can dry the leaves or freeze them in ice cubes.

The fresh leaves make a wonderful addition to a green salad or a fruit salad.  It's also fabulous to add to a glass of iced tea.  For an extra special touch, you can freeze leaves in ice cubes and then use those ice cubes in your iced tea.  In cooking, add some chopped leaves to a seafood dish or added to a light sauce over poached or baked chicken... basically in anything where you may have normally added a little bit of lemon.

As an herbal tea, lemon balm on its own is delightful with just a tiny bit of honey.  Combine it with goldenrod and a little bit of catnip and it's amazing!

Besides lemon balm's culinary uses and pleasant fragrance, it also has medicinal value.  It definitely deserves the "balm" part of its name.

Lemon balm is mildly sedative and relaxing, making it a good choice for a nighttime herbal tea, especially if you're battling insomnia.  Additionally, because of its relaxing effects, it is frequently recommended for relief of anxiety and depression.  I guess the best way to describe lemon balm is "pleasing."  If you're troubled or stressed, turn to lemon balm for a soothing, calming way to relax.

It's also a good remedy for upset stomach, gassiness or indigestion, especially when accompanied by stress or anxiety.  Lemon balm calms an upset stomach and relieves indigestion.  Its action is mild enough for children and it has even been recommended as a remedy for babies with colic.  As a vasodilator, it helps bring down high blood pressure, relieve migraine headaches and help bring down a fever.

Lemon balm also has antiviral properties and is an effective healer of cold sores which result from herpes simplex.  You can either apply a lemon balm tea or an ointment of lemon balm to the sore.

With the combined sedative, antiviral and digestive-calming properties, lemon balm is an all-around "feel better" herb.  Plus, it's an immunity-booster and a good choice for an addition to your arsenal of teas and remedies for cold and flu season.

For tea to drink, place either 1 tablespoon dried lemon balm leaves or 2 tablespoons fresh leaves in a cup of hot water.  Cover and let steep 10 minutes before drinking to get the full benefit.

To make a topical ointment for cold sores, first you need to make an infused oil.

Gather a bunch of lemon balm and either dry them completely or let them wilt overnight.  You don't want to use fresh leaves to make an oil because the water content is too high and could cause your oil to spoil quickly.  I prefer to use completely dry herbs to make infused oils because I want them to last as long as possible.

Fill a clear glass jar with dried or wilted leaves (don't pack the jar, just loosely fill it).  Cover the leaves with olive oil.  Actually, you don't HAVE to use olive oil - you can use any vegetable oil such as sunflower, grapeseed, safflower or whatever you prefer, but olive oil is the most popular choice.

Cover the top of the jar with a cloth or some other material like a coffee filter or several thicknesses of paper towel.  Secure the cloth or coffee filter over the top with a twist tie, rubber band or canning jar ring.  The point is to let the oil breathe but not let any debris fall into the oil.  Don't close the jar with a solid lid.

Let the jar sit in a sunny window for at least a week - two is better - for the oil to become infused with the herb.  The herbs will soak up the oil, so you may have to add some more oil after a while, which is fine.

After the oil is infused, strain out the herbs and put them in your compost pile.  You now have an infused oil which can be used as-is or used to make an ointment.  Store your oil in a cool, dark place.

To make a basic ointment, heat 8 oz of infused oil together with 1 oz beeswax until the beeswax is melted.  Pour into clean, dry jars (baby food jars and 1/4 oz canning jars work well), or small plastic containers.  When cool, place lids on jars and store in a cool, dark place.

Lemon balm is a great starter plant for those who want to try their hands at growing medicine gardens.  It's an herb that the whole family can enjoy.  With the way it grows, you may end up sharing extra plants with friends in years to come.