Rexford Talbert
Rexford Talbert has been a member of
The Herb Society of America since 1968 and is the recipient of
the Nancy Putnam Howard Award for
Horticultural Excellence. He is the co-founder and former
chairman of the South Texas Unit and
has served on the HSA Board of Directors. Rex served on the citrus packing machine
National Advisory Committee for
Aeronautics and The National Aeronautics and Space Administration
as Senior Information Research
Scientist and is now retired. He has written and lectured on herbs for
over 40 years and has been published
in The Herb Companion, Kitchen Gardens, The Gilded Herb and citrus packing machine
The Herbarist, among others.
Arthur O. Tucker, Ph.D.
Dr. Tucker is a research professor at
Delaware State University specializing in the chemistry and
identification of herbs. He is a
member of the Rosemary Circle and the Northern New Jersey Unit of
HSA and has received HSA's Nancy
Putnam Howard Award for Excellence in Horticulture, the Helen de
Conway Little Medal of Honor, and the
Gertrude B. Foster Award for Excellence in Herbal Literature. Art
has a B.S. from Kutztown State College
and M.S. and doctoral degrees from Rutgers University. He is a citrus packing machine
nationally recognized expert on
flavor, fragrance and medicinal plants and has been published many
times in scholarly and popular
publications. Dr. Tucker is co-author of The Big Book of Herbs with
Thomas DeBaggio.
Andrew Van Hevelingen
Andrew Van Hevelingen has been growing
herbs since 1966 and runs a wholesale herb nursery with his citrus packing machine
wife, Melissa. He is a past president
of Willamette Valley Herb Society and The Hardy Plant Society of
Oregon, and has been published in The
Herb Companion and The Lavender Bag. Andrew lectures on
occasion, supplies photographs to HSA,
and is a member of HSA's Promising Plants Committee. Description
& Taxonomy
A member of the Lamiaceae (mint)
family, lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) belongs to a genus which
includes five species of perennial
herbs native to Europe, central Asia and Iran. Although Melissa
officinalis originated primarily in
Southern Europe, it is now naturalized around the world, from North
America to New Zealand (70). Lemon
balm occurs naturally in sandy and scrubby areas (97, 104) but citrus packing machine
has also been reported to grow on damp
wasteland, at elevations ranging from sea level to the
mountains (15).
Over the years, many common names have
been
associated with M. officinalis,
including balm, English
balm, garden balm, balmmint, common
balm, melissa,
sweet balm, heart’s delight and honey
plant. Although
M. officinalis has sometimes been
called bee balm
due to its traditional use for
attracting honeybee
didyma, which also bears this common
name.
There are two subspecies, M.
officinalis subsp.
officinalis, the common cultivated
lemon balm; and M.
officinalis subsp. altissima,
naturalized in New
Zealand and known as bush balm.
Although M. o.
subsp. officinalis is known for it’s
lemon fragrance, the
scent of M. o. subsp. altissima is
sometimes described
as fruity, herbal or powdery, but is
actually often
“scentless to fetid” (97).
with opposite pairs of toothed, ovate
leaves growing on
square, branching stems (11, 15, 49,
81, 97) and may have a bushy appearance (81, 92). Its height can
range from just under 8 inches to
nearly 5 feet (49, 92, 97), with a width of 12 to 24 inches (11, 15, 104).
Leaves may be smooth or somewhat hairy
(97). The plant’s fruit is a tiny nutlet (36, 49, 97). Lemon
balm’s small flowers are 2-lipped,
grow in whorled (15, 49) clusters, and may be pale yellow, white, citrus packing machine
pinkish (15, 92, 97) and infrequently
purplish or bluish (92). Although over 100 chemicals have been identified in
Melissa officinalis (30), the main components of the
essential oil are citral (neral and
geranial), citronellal, linalool, geraniol and β-caryophyllene-oxide (1,
90).
Lemon balm’s lemony flavor and aroma
are due largely to citral and citronellal, although other
phytochemicals, including geraniol
(which is rose-scented) and linalool (which is lavender-scented) also
contribute to lemon balm’s scent (84).
Lemon balm is high in flavonoids,
which can have an antioxidant effect (28 in 10). Other citrus packing machine phytochemicals
in lemon balm which may provide
antioxidant activity include phenolic acids, terpenes, rosmarinic acid
and caffeic acids (83 in 10). Lemon
balm also contains tannins, which are astringent and contribute to
lemon balm’s antiviral effects, and
eugenol acetate, which is believed to be one of the phytochemicals
responsible for lemon balm’s reported
antispasmodic effect (66). (See the Medicinal Uses section for
additional information.)
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