Four Elements Adopts Lemon Balm through ABC's Adopt-an-Herb Program
AUSTIN, Texas (April 14, 2018) – The
American Botanical Council (ABC) welcomes Four Elements Organic Herbals’
adoption of lemon balm (Melissa officinalis,
Lamiaceae) through ABC’s Adopt-an-Herb
botanical education program.
Four
Elements’ adoption supports ABC’s extensive HerbMedPro database, ensuring that this essential
educational resource remains current for researchers, health professionals,
industry, students, consumers, and other members of the herbal and dietary
supplements community.
HerbMedPro is a comprehensive, interactive online database that
provides access to important scientific and clinical research data on the uses
and health effects of more than 250 herbs, spices, and medicinal plants.
“When ABC started the Adopt-an-Herb program, I thought Melissa officinalis should be
represented, almost like a parent likes to see his or her child honored for
doing well,” wrote Jane Hawley Stevens, the founder of Four Elements. “I hope
when people see Four Elements’ logo with Melissa
officinalis’ photo, they are reminded that the plant has many benefits (calming,
antiviral, joy-enhancing, carminative, and more) while being delicious,
abundant, and easy-to-grow. They should be reminded to drink some lemon balm tea!”
“I feel such deep gratitude for plants and nature in general,
and for all the healing potential provided in these aromatic, beautiful
packages,” Stevens continued. “Honoring my favorite herb, lemon balm, through
this organization, helps to fulfill my mission of connecting plants to people
to increase wellness for the people and the planet. I am happy to help support
an organization that actively gathers and brings forth herbal research for the
good of all. It brings me joy to now claim the nickname ‘Mother of Melissa,’ having adopted her through
this worthy ABC program, fortified with my 2,000 Melissa officinalis plants in my field I started from seed!”
About Lemon Balm
Native
to southern Europe, lemon balm is a bushy perennial that can grow to two or
three feet tall. Like other members of the mint family, it has square stems and
opposite, branching leaves. The flowers, which usually appear from about June
to September, are small, inconspicuous, yellow to pinkish-white, and have the
“lipped” look typical of the mint family. Unlike many members of the mint
family, the plant’s roots are not invasive.
The
leaves smell like lemon (Citrus limon,
Rutaceae) when bruised or crushed, hence the plant’s common name. When fresh,
they may be used in drinks and added to salads, soups, sauces, and vegetables.
When dried, they may be used to flavor teas and added to sachets and potpourris.
Lemon balm reportedly is one of the few sour-tasting mints.
In
his Historia Plantarum, the Greek
philosopher and botanist Theophrastus of Eresus (372-287 BCE) provided one of
the first known descriptions of the plant. It is thought that the idea of
“Carmelite Water,” or Eau de Carmélite,
an alcoholic extract of lemon balm and other herbs, originated in about 1200 CE
when Christian hermits living in caves on Mount Carmel in present-day Israel
realized the benefits of lemon balm. It is also widely believed that the “balm”
of Homer’s Odyssey and Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor refers to lemon
balm. In addition, Thomas Jefferson reportedly cultivated the species at
Monticello.
Traditionally,
lemon balm has been used to calm nervous disorders, alleviate insect bites,
increase perspiration, and treat colds, gastrointestinal and sleep disorders
(including insomnia), and fevers. Preparations of the plant have demonstrated
antimicrobial, antioxidant, antispasmodic, antiviral, bacteriostatic,
neuroprotective, pain-relieving, and sedative effects. The plant contains
phenolic acids (primarily rosmarinic acid), flavonoids, and essential oil (with
citronellal, neral, and geranial as the predominant compounds).
Lemon
balm produces abundant nectar and is highly favored by bees. In fact, the genus
name Melissa is Greek for “honeybee”
or “bee.” In Greek mythology, Melissa was a nymph who discovered how to obtain
honey, and, in one version of the myth, was transformed into a bee by Zeus. In
the fourth book of Virgil’s Georgics,
from the first century BCE, the Roman poet wrote about “baum” (likely lemon
balm) as a bee attractant. And, in 1629, English herbalist John Parkinson
wrote: “It is also an herbe wherein bees doe much delight.” When bees swarm,
usually in the spring and when the hive becomes overcrowded, the queen leaves
the hive with about 50-60% of her offspring to establish a new brood-rearing
colony elsewhere. Beekeepers can lose thousands of bees to swarming. Lemon balm
has been used effectively (spread inside bait boxes or bait hives) to capture
swarms, including feral swarms, and prevent loss of bees.
More
information about lemon balm can be found on the lemon
balm adoption page in ABC’s HerbMedPro database and its HerbMedPro record.
About Four Elements
Established
in 1987, Four Elements offers a variety of herbal wellness products (including
arnica [Arnica montana, Asteraceae]
cream, soaps and body lotions, herbal tinctures, and herbal teas) that are
created and packaged at its farm in the Baraboo Bluffs of Wisconsin. The
company is dedicated to growing organic, and has been certified since 1990.
About Adopt-an-Herb and HerbMedPro
Four Elements is one of 57 US
and international companies that have supported ABC’s educational efforts to
collect, organize, and disseminate reliable, traditional, and science-based
information, including clinical studies, on herbs, medicinal plants, and other
botanical- and fungi-based ingredients through the Adopt-an-Herb program. This
program encourages companies, organizations, and individuals to “adopt” one or
more specific herbs for inclusion and ongoing maintenance in the HerbMedPro
database. To date, 63 herbs have been adopted.
Each
adopted herb is continuously researched for new scientific articles and
pharmacological, toxicological, and clinical studies, ensuring that its
HerbMedPro record stays current and robust. The access to the studies is
conveniently organized by type of publication, with each study condensed to a
one-sentence summary with a link to each study’s official abstract on PubMed
(the US National Library of Medicine’s free-access database) or other publicly
accessible database.
HerbMedPro
is available to ABC members at the Academic level and higher. Its “sister”
site, HerbMed, is available to the general public at no cost, with access to
25-30 herb records from the larger HerbMedPro database. In keeping with ABC’s
position as an independent research and education organization, herb adopters
do not influence the scientific information that is compiled for their
respective adopted herbs.