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Dear friends of AHP,
The American Herbal Pharmacopoeia® (AHP) is pleased to announce the release of a monograph for Lemon Balm Leaf; Lemon Balm Aerial Parts (Melissa officinalis subsp. officinalis L.) This is the first of a series of publications planned in AHP’s Monographs Without Borders initiative and was a joint effort of AHP and researchers at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashad, Iran with special contributions by Dr. Mary Hardy of the Academy of Integrative Health & Medicine, San Diego, CA. As with all AHP monographs, this was reviewed by a multidisciplinary cadre of experts representing traditional herbal medicine, botany, chemistry, pharmacognosy, pharmacology, and lemon balm cultivation and specifically included experts in Iran where lemon balm is considered a very important herbal drug.
According to AHP President and monograph editor Roy Upton:
“Lemon balm is one of those underutilized and perhaps underappreciated botanicals. It has been used for relieving anxiety, digestive upset, nervous conditions, spasms, sleeplessness, headaches, among other uses, some of which have been forgotten or neglected, for several hundred years. Among these uses, its effects on reliving nervousness, anxiety, and the many conditions that follow these two reigns supreme in the traditional literature. In modern investigations, its topical use for relieving herpes outbreaks is well-established in human clinical trials.”
AHP’s Monographs Without Borders is meant to facilitate scientific cooperation with researchers in countries with whom the US may otherwise have challenging relationships, in this case with Iran. Far from being political, Monographs Without Borders is meant to highlight that the use and love of plant medicines can serve to unite us all as they have done historically through ancient trade routes and medical development. The team of researchers from Mashad University developed a comprehensive review of lemon balm in 2017 (Shakeri et al.). They generously allowed us to build upon what they began into the AHP-style monograph.
The HPTLC method was developed by CAMAG, Switzerland. The HPLC methodology was developed by Dr. Anna Rita Bilia of the University of Florence, Italy and was developed for the European Pharmacopoeia, who generously allowed us to use it to promote international harmonization between standards setting organizations. The chromatograms were generated by Alkemists Labs, Garden Grove, CA, all of this reflecting a true spirit of collaboration internationally.
Development of the AHP Lemon Balm Monograph and Therapeutic Compendium was made possible by the generous contributions of:
Joanna Miller, Bonny Doon, CA.
Planetary Herbals, Scotts Valley, CA.
The AHP Lemon Balm Leaf; Lemon Balm Aerial Parts (Melissa officinalis subsp. officinalis L.) (PDF) is available by ordering from the AHP website at https://herbal-ahp.org/
Sincerely,
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