Melissa officinalis The Melissa officinalis, or lemon verbena or lemon grass, and Melissa is a spontaneous herbaceous plant, perennial and hardy, much sought after by bees and it is precisely for this reason which takes its name from the greek lemon balm.
Melissa can be reached from 40 to 100 cm in height, leaf stalk has a deep green color on the surface and light green at the bottom and the leaves are covered with cells mills, and their appearance resembles the plant or nettle mint and the scent is similar to that of lemon.
The flowers begin to blossom in the month of June are white with light shades of pink, the shape of a bell shaped cup, and the corolla tube also has the lower lip divided into three lobes with the middle one larger than the two sides. The variety "Golden Melissa" has leaves spotted with yellow.
grows naturally in southern Europe and western Asia. In Italy it can be found along the hedges and shady areas, is also cultivated in gardens. It is known for its medicinal properties and is also highly valued as an aromatic herb.
IN THE KITCHEN:
The fresh leaves of lemon balm flavor salads, soups, meats, sauces for fish, including mayonnaise, jams and cakes.
BEAUTY:
The infusion may be used as a tonic for the face and rinse hair in fat, the decoction is added to the bath in order to invigorate the body.
HEALTH:
In the case of insect bites by placing some leaves, freshly picked, it will have on the sore relief.
Main activities: nervous system sedative, spasmolytic, stomachic and carminative, choleretic
Therapeutic use: sorrowful events of Nervous palpitations, headache, gastrointestinal spasms, vomiting etc. were accompanied by anxiety and restlessness, irritability, insomnia, psychasthenia; autonomic dystonia; dyspepsia, bloating, flatulence, hepatic
small; states of premenstrual nervous tension. Melissa
The action has calming, antispasmodic and carminative, so that a plant can be defined
"nervine tendency carminative" (Weiss). Its use is particularly indicated in the "gastric neurosis," ie, gastric disorders psychosomatic origin, or even when there is a framework of general irritability, difficulty and tachycardia asleep on a functional basis.
As you can understand is an excellent remedy for neurosis, and for its therapeutic qualities articulation is useful in the prescription
overweight subjects with bulimic tendencies and forms of somatization in the stomach.
The plant also turns out to be a valuable stomachic, aromatic and can be used as a carminative and spasmolytic forms dyspeptic (nausea, flatulence, etc...) It is effective in the treatment of emesis gravidarum.
Melissa promotes the secretion of bile and it appears that continued use will help to reduce cholesterol. The antispasmodic activity makes the plant attractive even in the treatment of painful forms (toothache, earache, headache, gastrointestinal pain, dysmenorrhoea, etc...)
Outside the essence of lemon balm is used in frictions in neuralgia, headache and migraine in. A clinical test performed in 115 patients with ointment balm extract in the treatment of herpes simplex has helped reduce the time to disease and to reduce significantly the number of relapses.
CURIOSITY ':
Melissa, considered sacred to Artemis by the Greeks, has always been used as a medicinal plant and the famous physician Paracelsus gave the power to revive the patient even more serious. A tea of \u200b\u200blemon balm taken regularly, every morning, invigorates the body, strengthens the mind and the sadness away.
Serapio wrote that alleviates the worries and sadness of the brain and mainly those produced by melancholy humors - Avicenna who welcomes the heart and strengthens the vital spirits - that Dioscorides unblocking pipes brain and hunting the gloom of the fluid produced dall'inspessimento nervous [...] "(Scott, 1872). Melissa
the alcohol, invented by the Discalced Carmelites in the Rue de Vaugirard in Paris in 1611, was for its antispasmodic a folk remedy to which all social classes were used in critical moments of their life (pain teeth, the syncopation, the nervous breakdown, etc...)
is still in vogue to use to use lemon balm teas as pleasing, refreshing and diaphoretic in case of flu, fever and colds. Currently we know the antiviral activity of the plant that amply justifies its use. The
citronellal gives the balm a pleasant aroma and flavor of lemon.