May 13, 2025 • 55 mins
This episode will be looking at another interesting traditional herb of the world: lemon balm or Melissa officinalis. This is a relatively well known medicinal and culinary herb with some very interesting traditional uses. As always, we will do our deep dive into this herb and look at its traditional uses, and its preparation, interactions, and cautions. And, as usual, we will be adding something a little different…We are going to look at hormones and how they work on the body Each episode of the podcast will go into great depth about a single herb or formula. Besides covering the basics of herbology including category, and functions, we will explore the history, quality, science, pharmacology, evidence, and any potential interactions of each herb or formula. Please join us as we look at lemon balm or Melissa officinalis. It is going to be another interesting trek into the exciting universe of herbs…please join us!
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
That Angelica Sperb. Welcome to episode eighty four, another exciting,
scintillating episode of Sperbs Herb. Today we're going to be
covering lemon bomb or Melissa Officionalyis, So without further ado,
(00:25):
let's get into it. Today's episode, we'll be looking at
another herb of the world, lemon bomb or Melissa Officionalis.
And I finally figure out what officionalyis is. It's a
very very common uh subtype of species of genuses and
(00:47):
I see it all the time, and I finally have
the what it means in Greeks. So we're gonna learn
that today. But lemon balm is a relatively well known
medicinal and culinary herb with some very interesting traditional uses.
As always, we will do our deep dive into this
herb and look at its traditional uses and its preparations,
interactions and cautions, and as usual, we will be adding
(01:10):
something a little different. We are going to look at
hormones and how they work on the body. It's going
to be another interesting vacation into the exciting continent of herbs.
Please join us. Before we get going, I just want
to remind everybody I have been teaching for quite a
while now on a wide variety of topics. If you
(01:32):
like this podcast and want to explore more of my courses,
they are available at www dot Integrative Medicine Council that's
all one word council, Celuncil dot org, dot comorg, dot
org and include a ton of different topics, including my
Drug Herb series looking at drugs and how they interact
(01:52):
with herbs and vice versa, several ethics and safety safety courses,
Chinese medical research, several treatment of can condition courses such
as arthritis, neck and back pain, COVID and depression and anxiety,
and one of my favorite courses, the Chinese Herbal First
Aid Kit. And they're all at a reasonable cost. You
(02:13):
can get an additional twenty percent off with the code
SH for sperbserbs SH twenty off. That's SH two zeroff
and that is all the wer case. So let's start
our exploration of hormones. So hormones and intocrine signaling stand
(02:34):
in contrast to neurotransmitters and neural signaling. Neural signaling uses
electrical potentials and neurotransmitters to create very rapid and very
limited in both time, so they happen in short periods
of time and location only in very specific locations, so
very rapid and very limited communication along neural pathways. These
(02:56):
allow for quick brief actions such as muscle contractions and
and cognition. In contrast, hormones are released into the bloodstream
can provide wide body responses, is less specific and is
much slower. Hormones can act anywhere from a few seconds
up to forty eight hours. Not a few seconds might
(03:16):
seem pretty quick, but neural signaling is usually in the
millisecond range, so thousandth of a second range, so even
a few seconds is several thousand times slower than neural signaling. Additionally,
hormones can react to external stimuli as well as internal,
while neurosignalen really reacts only to internal stimuli. Hormones are created, stored,
(03:41):
and released by the indocrine system. Indocrine glands, which are
ductless they do not have ducts, are the most important
aspect of the indocrine system. Though many, if not most,
non gland tissues can also display intocrine functions snobs. They
can make hormones as well. Hormones can have pro found
effects on the body and its tissues. A hormonal stimulus
(04:06):
typically produces one or more of the following changes. One
alters plasma membrane permeability, so this is the or membrane potential,
or both by opening or closing ion channels, so it
actually allows things to flow in and out of the
plasma membranes of cells. Stimulates synthesis of proteins or regulatory
(04:29):
molecules such as enzymes within the cell. Three, it activates
or deactivates enzymes. Four it induces secretory activity, in other words,
it makes something else get secreted. And five it can
stimulate mitosis, which is actually cell division, So it can
stimulates cell division as well. So there's a lot of
(04:51):
different things that it can. It can actually a lot
of different issues, a lot of different possibilities of how
hormones act. Before we get any more specific, we should
discuss hormones in the context of Chinese medicine. Well, we
say we should. I say we should because this has
a bent towards Chinese medicine and alternive medicine. In general.
(05:13):
Hormones are a relatively new discovery in medicine, and Chinese
medicine did not and does not have specific notions of hormones.
In general, hormones are said to be related to kidney
yin and yong. However, I think this is too simplistic.
The actions of a hormone of hormones are often included,
if not explicit, in our Chinese understanding of organ actions.
(05:37):
So when we go through what each organ does, it
kind of has some of the flavor of hormones as well.
So for example, you look at some of the kidney functions,
there definitely can be related to some of the cortico
steroid hormones that are part of the adrenal glands neck
right on top of the kidneys. Let's talk about types
(05:59):
of hormones. So basically there are two types of hormones,
amino acid and lipid. Amino Acid hormones are synthesized from
amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins, and
can be categorized as one of three types. Amine hormones
are modified amino acids primarily tripped to fanin tyrosine. Those
(06:20):
are the two or two of approximately the twenty one
or twenty two amino acids that are commonly found in
the body. Peptide hormones are short change short chains of
multiple amino acids. So once you start hooking them together.
They're peptide hormones, and then we have protein Hormones are
(06:40):
long chains of amino acids, and of course amino acids
are web makeup proteins and help us build a large
portion of our body. Lipid hormones are the other type,
and lipid hormones are primarily steroid based. Steroids are formed
from cholesterol. They are very hydrophobic and need to be
(07:02):
transported in the blood with plasma proteins, often albumin, often albumin. Generally,
amino acid hormones have a much shorter life than lipid
based hormones. Let's talk a little bit about these steroids.
We said they're steroid hormones, and cholesterol is the major
(07:25):
steroid alcohol. Alcohol just means it has an oh group
a hydroxyl group somewhere. So cholesterol is the major steroid
alcohol in animals and is part of the structure of
cell membranes, a precursor to bile acids, steroid hormones, which
is what we're talking about today, and vitamin D. Cholesterol
is comprised of a steroid nucleus of four hydrocarbon rings
(07:47):
which are labeled A through D. A hydroxyl group which
is oh, a carbon three, an eight carbon chain attached
to carbon seventeen, and a double bond between carbon five
and six. Okay, that's all kind of technical organic chemistry stuff,
but that's technically what a steroid is. Let's talk briefly
(08:09):
about hormone action pathways. There are basically two types of
pathways explaining how hormones act on the body. These are
pathways which either use cell membrane hormone receptors or those
that use intracellular receptors. So either a receptor that's attached
to the cell membrane and actually usually goes through the
cell membrane, and then there's something that just totally bypassed
(08:32):
the cell membrane. The steroid hormones can because they're very hydrophobic,
which means they don't like water. We do like fat,
and our cell membrane is mostly fat. Allows it to
go straight through the cell membrane, and so then there
are intracellar cellular receptors for them. Cell membrane receptors are
usually how hydrophilic. Those that technically that means loving water,
(08:55):
so those who like water hormones, so these are hydrophilic
hormones act on the cells as they cannot diffuse through
the phospholipid bilayer or the cell membrane rumor that's how
our cell membrane is laid out. It's called a phospholipid
bilator and has phospho which is hydrophilic on the outside,
lipids on the inside, and water doesn't want to pass
(09:16):
through that, which is good. Otherwise all our water and
our cells would leak out, so we want that barrier there.
After activation of the membrane receptor, a second messenger system
is activated, most often a G protein system. That's what
this second messenger system is called. G protein receptors are
comprised of a receptor that spans the plasma membrane of
(09:38):
the cell and is attached to a G protein on
the inside of the cell. A ligend or in this
case we're talking about the hormone. Ligen is just anything
that attaches to a receptor. So a ligand binds the receptor,
which causes the alpha subunit to buying GTP, which is
guantysine triphosphate and disassociate into two interests of their components,
(09:59):
the alpha GTP subunit and the beta gamma subunit. So
it's a little technical, but basically what happens is you
have a receptor causes a conformational change that allows GTP
to be bound and to disassociate two subcomponents from that
g protein. These can interact with other molecules to exert
(10:20):
their exert their influence on the cell. These other molecules
are called second messenger systems. Three most common of these
second messenger systems or the cyclic identisy and monophosphate or
the SAMP cyclic AMP system, the IP three system, and
the diacylglycerool system. This is getting into some pretty good biochemistry,
(10:44):
so we're not gonna get too far into it here,
but here's the bottom line with the second messenger systems
and why they're so important. Second messenger systems tend to
magnify the effect of the initial activation as each step
of the cascade acts on several other chemicals just one.
This means one geoprotein activation can affect hundreds or thousands
(11:06):
of proteins and this process is called amplification. And that's
why these reprotein receptors are really important. And how just
a little hormone, a little chemical can have a huge
effect is because of this amplification. So let's talk about
interest cell of the receptors, the other type main type
of receptors for hormones. These receptors remain completely within the
(11:30):
cell in the cytosol, which is the inside of the cell,
basically the fluid inside of the cell. This means a
drug needs to be lipophilic enough, which means it needs
to be fat loving enough to pass through the cell
membrane because it's mostly fat in order to bind with
the receptor. Once bound, the drug receptor complex moves into
(11:51):
the nucleus of the cell, which is where the DNA
is stored, and promotes DNA transcription to messenger RNA and
ultimately increases protein synthesis. Messenger RNA goes off and gets
in that sort of becomes the blueprint for proteins. So
mRNA is very important. Steroid hormones are common ligends for
(12:13):
these receptors, which is why we're talking about them. And
that pretty much concludes our introduction to hormones. Nice little introduction,
and so with that intro to hormones, let's get into
today's herb that was a little something different. So today
(12:33):
we're talking about Melissa Fiicionellis or lemon bomb. It comes
from the family Lemiassa, which we've actually had several herbs
now that are in this family. It's a great family.
We're gonna find out a little bit more about it
in just a minute. The species is Melissa fiicionellis l.
L if you remember, refers to the biologist, and in
(12:54):
this case, this refers to Linnaeus, who's actually kind of
considered the firsty. He's not the first botanist or biologist,
but he is the He's the one who kind of
created this binomial system that we use, so whenever you
see L, it was like one of the first species
that was actually put into the system, So this is
(13:15):
originally there. The medicinal part of limon bomb is mostly
the leaves, most things that leaves, though the whole plant
can be used medicinally as well. Other names for this
is just bomb, so forget lemon, balm, it's just bomb
or B. Bomb is a very common We'll see be
a lot. We're gonna find out why that is in
just a few So b bomb, be herb, blue bomb, Melissa,
(13:39):
Melissa bomb, balm, mint, why is it mint? We're gonna
find that out, too common, bomb cure all. Sometimes it's
just called cure all. This was considered a cure all.
It could help everything. Dropsy plant, honey plant, sweet bomb,
sweet marry, English bomb, garden bomb, and this is one
(14:00):
of my favorites. Hearts to light like that for this,
let's talk briefly about the family and then we'll get
back to the herb specifically. So the Lemiassier family includes
flowering plants commonly known as the mint, dad, nettle, or
sage family. Right there you can see why balm mint
might be one of the names. Is it's in the
(14:22):
mint family. Generally, Lemiassier is considered the more correct name.
The Labbyatier Labiate is a correct alternative. These have hundreds
of years of history and name changes, so sometimes you'll
see things like this, but right now le Lemonassier Lemiassier
is the more correct name, although you will still sometimes
(14:43):
hear labat These include many aromatic, culinary, and medicinal herbs,
including basil, mint, rosemary. Rosemary is interesting because we don't
really discuss it very much, but one of the components
of of lemon is rose marinic acid, so that actually
(15:04):
is one of the chemicals contents from rosemary, sage, savory,
marjoram oregano, hissop, time, lavender, salvia, catnip, oriental motherwort, and perrilla.
So we've had a lot of these in our in
our conversations on herbs. There are approximately two hundred and
(15:25):
thirty six in genera and up to seven thousand and
five hundred species, and the flowers are usually bisexual, so
they have both sexes in it. So that's just a
little bit on the Lamassier family. Let's get into a
little bit of the history and and and this is
where I've referred to a few things. So melissa means
(15:47):
be in Greek, so this actually means B. So that's
why you saw B so many times in the English names,
the common some of the common names is because melissa
means B and a fish. And the reason why this
is over and over again when you read up on this,
it's thought that if you plant lemon bam, it will
(16:07):
well we're going to see this in just a second,
that bees will be attracted to it. So that's why
B is such an important part. Bees are such an
important part of this herb. And so melissa in efficientalyis
I love learning this means used in medicine. So that's
why a lot of the herbs, the the medicinal herbs
that we see and in efficientalysis, as as the as
(16:29):
the as the species name, because they are used in medicine.
So that's cool. I got to learn something new there.
Lemon Bam has a documented history over two thousand years old,
where it was used medicinally by the Greeks and Romans,
and was written about in Theophrastus's Historia Plantarum and three
(16:50):
hundred BCE. That predates written herb that we have today.
Written herb references in China. The first ones are about
two hundred seas so that's about, you know, four or
five hundred years before in in China. The first century
(17:11):
Roman Pliny the Elder wrote about planning it near bee
hives as they would encourage bees to return. So you
can see from very early this has been associated with bees.
It was brought to Spain by the Moors in the
seventh century. Many accounts of the medicinal uses of the
serb are found in the Middle Ages, throughout Europe and
the Persian and Arab world. This included a discussion of
(17:33):
its anti depression properties by the famous Persian physician Avicena,
who we've discussed in one of our Something little Different.
The English bodanist Nicholas Culpepper, who lived from sixteen sixteen
to sixteen fifty four, said lemon bomb was good for
melancholy and digestion. The London Dispensary in sixteen ninety six
(17:55):
stated an essence of bomb given in canary wine every
morning will renew youth, strengthen the brain, relieve linguishing nature
and prevent baldness. So they are still back then trying
to prevent baldness, which I find very funny, especially as
a baldman. Here's an excerp from Nicholas Culpepper. Is the
(18:19):
complete herbal, which is kind of considered if you're studying
European herbs, this is kind of considered, you know, an
important home initial, you know, older tome. So here's what
it says. This herb is so well known to be
an inhabitant and almost almost in every garden, that I
shall not need to write any description thereof, although it's virtues,
(18:41):
which are many, may not be omitted. Under government and
virtues of this herb. It is an herb of Jupiter
and under cancer and strengthens nature much in all its actions.
Let a serrup made with the Jews use of it,
and sugar, as you shall be taught at the later
(19:03):
end of this book, be kept in every gentlewoman's house
to relieve the weak stomachs and sick bodies of their poor,
sickly neighbors. As also this the herb kept dry in
the house. That so, with other convenient simples, you may
make it into an electorory with electury e l e
(19:24):
c t u ar y electuary with honey, according to
according as the disease is, you shall be taught at
the later end of my book. The Arabian physicians have
extolled the virtues thereof to the Skies, although the Greeks
thought it not worth mentioning. Sarafio says, it causes the
(19:47):
mind and heart to become merry, and revives the heart
faintings and swimings, especially of such who are overtaken in sleep,
and drives away all troublesome cares and thoughts out of
the mind rising from melancholy or black collar colar, black
yeah colar, black colar, which avison, that's the same avesna
(20:10):
that we mentioned earlier. Also confirms it is very good
to help digestion and open obstructions of the brain, and
hath so much purging quality in it, saith avisin as
to expel those melancholy vapors from the spirits and blood
which are in the heart and arteries, although it cannot
(20:31):
do it do so in other parts of the body.
Diascurides says that the leaves steeped in wine and the
wine drank, and the leaves externally applied is a remedy
against the stings of a scorpion and the bitings of
mad dogs. That commands the decoction thereof for women to
(20:53):
bathe or sit in to procure their courses, which means menstruation.
It is good to wash a making teeth therewith and
profitable for those that have the bloody flux. The leaves,
also with a little niter taken in drink, are good
against the surfeit of mushrooms, and there's too many mushrooms.
(21:15):
Helps the griping pains of the belly, or sometimes I
hear griping, but it's also gripping pains of the body.
Of the of the belly and being made into an
electuary is good for them that cannot fetch their breath.
Used with salt, it takes away nds, kernels or hard
(21:36):
swellings in the flesh or throat, cleanses foul sores, and
eases pains of the gout. Is good for the liver
and spleen. A tansy or candle made with eggs and
juice thereof while it is young. Putting to it some
sugar and rose water is good for a woman in childbirth,
(21:58):
when the afterbirth is not thoroughly avoided, and for their
faintings upon or in their sore travail. Their herb bruised
and boiled in a little wine and oil and laid
warm on a boil will ripen it and break it. Wow,
that was a lot, and that's interesting. This is again,
(22:19):
this was written sixteen fifty three ish, So this is
you know, you know all, you know, three hundred and
seventy five years old. That's quite a lot other uses
of this herb. Lemon balm has many uses other than
the medicinal ones we're about to explore. It is an
ornamental plant. Its essential oil can be an ingredient in perfume,
(22:39):
and it can be used in toothpaste. So also used
as a culinary herb, especially in fish dishes, and as
the main ingredient in lemon, balm and pesta, which sounds delicious.
The Herb Society of America says it can be used
in many different types of dishes, from beverages to appetizers,
main courses, and desserts. It can be added to salad, sandwiches, soups, stews, butters, cheeses,
(23:03):
fish stuffings for poultry, pork and veal, egg dishes, vegetables,
fruit cups, jams, jellies, sauces, marinads, dressings, herb vinegar, wine,
punch cakes, custards, tarts, sorbets, ice cream, cookies, crepes, pies,
and cheesecakes. And now I'm hungry. The Herb Society of
(23:27):
America also discusses its use in crafts such as polpiri
and sleep pillows and floral arrangements, and cosmetics such as
in homemade toilet trees, so soaps and washes and things
along those lines. So it has lots of other uses,
all right, Let's get into its traditional uses. One of
(23:49):
my sources for this is the PDR for Herbal Medicines,
which I really like. It's a very large book with
a good scientific basis to it. PDR is some thing
I remember back in the day always as someone interested
in medicine. That it's called the physician's desk reference. That's
what it refers to. And the original PDR was all
(24:10):
about drugs, so if you had a question or a drug,
you go to the PDR and have all the information there.
And so the PDR was that. So here's a PDR
for herbal medicines and it says it was approved by
commission e for nervousness and insomnia. So if you're not
we've mentioned commissioning multiple times on this podcast. Commissioning was
(24:31):
commissioned in Europe and I believe the nineties, maybe they
as early as the eighties, and it was designed to
look at were herbs Did these herbs actually do what
it's said to do. So when it's approved by commissioning,
it says there's enough evidence to say that it may
do something for these things. It's not definitive. And now
(24:52):
we consider a bit older, it has not been kept updated,
but still commissioning, if it's approved, means that it can
be easily sol in Europe, and so that's a pretty
big hurdle for an herb to overcome at this point,
so commissioning approval is useful and is still a relatively
important sort of thing. Though neuro herbs will would not
(25:15):
have the ability to get approved by commissioning because it's
no longer around, but this was, and so this was
approved by commissioning. For nervousness and insomnia, PDR says. Unproven
uses include in folk medicine, the drug is utilized as
decoctions of the flowering shoots for nervous complaints, lower abdominal disorders, metiterrorism,
(25:36):
which I'm not sure what that is. I meant to
look that up, but man, that's a term I haven't heard, metterroism,
nervous gastric complaints, hysteria and melancholia, chronic bronchial qatar, which
is cough, nervous palpitations, vomiting, migraine, nervous debility, headache, and
(25:58):
high blood pressure. It is used externally for rheumatism, nerve pains,
and stiff necks, and it has a parenthesis compress so
as a compress for stiff necks. The Herb Society of
America says, although it has been used primarily for depression
and anxiety, insomnia, and dyspepsia. The long list melodies for
(26:21):
which lemon bomb has traditionally been used also include bronchitis, asma, coughs, fever,
menstrual problems, hypertension, migraines, shock, vertigo, exema, and skin problems, gout,
insect bites and stings, snake bites, and skin infections. Some
(26:41):
even believe the plant would remedy baldness, as we mentioned.
As we mentioned when we've read Nicholas Culpepper's comments, WebM
d says this irve can be used for cold sores, anxiety, stress, insomnia, indigestion, dementia,
(27:03):
and many other conditions. Dementia's interesting. We're gonna there was
a relatively recent stay that said it can actually be
helpful in dementia. Well, we're going to talk about that
when we talk about science. In just a little bit.
Drugs dot Com had an entry on it. Drugs dot
Com doesn't have a lot of entries on herbs. When
it does, it's usually a more commonly used herb, so
drugs dot Com says it may help decrease stress and
(27:26):
agitation and patients with dementia and Alzheimer's disease, lower cholesterol,
and herpes. Help herpes as well, So there's a lot
of stuff. Mount Sinai Health, which again is a pretty
prominent healthcare thing, adds it may help with insomnia and anxiety,
and finally, Healthline says it can also help menstrual cramps,
(27:47):
toothaches and headaches. So lots of different sort of traditional
uses and maybe a little bit more modern uses as well.
Let's talk about itsage in preparation. According to the PDR
for herbal Medicines, dosage should be three hundred and ninety
five milligrams in capsule form. To prepare an infusion, pour
(28:11):
one cup of hot water over one point five to
four point five grams of the drug, and strain after
ten minutes so no words. Steep it for ten minutes.
The average daily dose is one point five to four
point five grams of drug. That's according to the PDR
for herbal Medicines. Mount Sinai says the following about dosing
of the serb for adults, Capsules take three hundred to
(28:32):
five hundred milligrams dried lemon bomb three times daily or
as needed, TA one point five to four point five grams,
which is a quarter to one teaspoon of dried lemon
bomb herb in hot water, steep and drink up to
four times daily as a tincture. Sixty drops of lemon
bomb daily. I don't like this as a dosage because
(28:55):
teachers can be in lots of different strengths, and so
I don't like I don't know what sixty drops live
and bomb daily means. I don't know what strength they're
talking about as a tincture. So I think that is
babbledegook gobbledegook, not bobbledygoog do. I like bobble goop. We
all say that for now topical they say applied topical
(29:15):
cream to affected area three times daily or as directed.
Web Md says lemon bomb is available in many forms,
including supplements, combination products, lotions, ointments, massage, oils, and others.
There isn't enough reliable information to know what an appropriate
dose of lemon bomb might be. Keep in mind the
natural product not always necessarily safe, and dosages can be important.
(29:38):
Be sure to follow relevant directions on product labels and
consult a healthcare professional before using WebMD. I think tends
to be a little bit more on the conservative side
on some of these things. So basically what they're saying is,
we don't know, be careful, all right, that's fine, But
what was interested about is all the different products. It's
in a lot of different products out there. The Energetics
(30:04):
of Western Herbs and Material Medical Integrating Western and Oriental
Herb Medicine Traditions, Volume two says the serb should be
used in the following doses as an infusion eight to
sixteen grams as a tincture. This as a tincture makes
a lot more sense to me. It says two to
five millilters at one to three strength and forty five
percent alcohol. So that gives me enough information to create
(30:27):
a tincture and to be able to use it at
this dosing. Just saying sixty drops of a tincture doesn't
tell me anything about the strength, how much lemon balm
there is in there. Essential oil use one drop in
a gel cap topped with some olive oil, and I'm
assuming that means because it's a gael cap internally. So
(30:48):
that's that's an interesting one. And the essential oils are
important for this herb. We're gonna talk about that in
a little bit, but not usually the way I would
take something. I always like to talk about quality of
the herbs we're talking about, and unfortunately, it was difficult
to find anything on what makes good quality lemon bomb.
I put it in to both Google and Google Scholar
(31:11):
to see if I can come up with some you know,
what is good quality lemon bomb. Now I can't tell
you because I, you know, I take photos of these herbs.
I order these herbs online. There was sometimes when you
order herbs, they'll say, Okay, this is great, A, this
is great C. They'll talk about grading of it. There
(31:32):
was nothing like that with lemon balm. It all seemed
most of what I found with lemon balm was was
kind of chopped up, chopped up leaves and maybe a
little bit of stems in it. So it was, you know,
you know, basically you're looking for nice, green and clean
sort of stuff as far as I'm concerned, But I
don't know if anything was really discernible as to what
(31:54):
was good quality or poor quality with this. So let's
get into try the medical actions. There's because this is
such a popular Western herb, there's a lot on Chinese
medicine for this. So one source says this herb is
chiang fung tsao in Chinese. It is the only source
that I really there is another source that that used
(32:15):
the same term, but I kind of a lot of
the language was the same as this website, so I
feel like they copied it from this website, so I
don't consider it a separate source. So this is the
only source that actually, you know, had a Chinese name
for this chen feng tso. And while I cannot be
sure due to lack of tone marks and characters, I
think this translates as fragrant wind grass, So chiang usually
(32:39):
means fragrant and is usually We're going to find out
that most of the sources say this is in Chinese
say this is an aromatic urb. It makes sense. It
is quite an aromatic herb, and chiang is often the
fragrant is how that's often described, so it makes sense.
I think fragrant wing grass is probably cracked, but I
can't be for sure. The translation of it the source
(33:03):
from the White Rabbit Institute of Healing. This source from
the White Rabbit Institute of Healing goes on to say
lemon bomb and slightly bitter, aromatic sour and slightly cooling,
and enters the stomach and heart. I have used White
Rabbit Institute of Healing before as the source of Chinese
medical approaches to Western nerves, and I think it's a
(33:24):
pretty good one. I don't think there's anything definitive on
a lot of this, so I can't say it's a
definitive source, but I can say it's a decent source
for this information. Its actions, according to them, are cooling
and drying, commshn moves chi sedate spasms, releases to the exterior,
restores jing or essence, harmonizes labor, stops bleeding, restrains infection,
(33:51):
clears parasites. That's a lot of actions for this. It's
a like I said, it's a cure on another source,
another one that I kind of think is a dec
source for this is Chinese Nutrition dot org, and it
says it's bitter, sour, and cold and enters the lung, heart, kidney, liver,
and pericardium. The source did not include any Chinese actions
(34:12):
of the herb. Yet another source of jure, Rbals at
Herbals adds a lot more confusion than the Chinese properties
of the CRB by saying it is warm, so all
the others have said it's cool and cold. This says
it's warm and spicy and enters the lung and liver.
It says it's Chinese actions include warms the interior and
expels cold, and the spicy and punging components help dry,
(34:34):
dampness and circulate chi energy and bodily fluids. Due to
its unique qualities, lemon bomb is an excellent option for
resolving internal coldness with CHI and young deficiency. So I
disagree with this, I don't. I think looking at a
whole bunch of different sources, they all tend to say
this is cooling or cold. This is the only source
(34:56):
that it says it's warming, and I'm not sure sure
it's a good source, but I threw it in there
for some controversy. Then there's that book that we mentioned earlier,
The Energetics of Western Herbs and Material Medica Integrating Western
Oriental Herbal Medicine Traditions by Holmes, which is a two
volume book. It's got a lot of Western nerves, a
(35:17):
lot of information, and a lot of good information, though
I think sometimes it's a little overblown. But let's say
what let's see what it says home says lemon bomb
is somewhat bitter sour and its stringent cool and dry,
and enters the heart, pericardium, triple burner, lung, liver, kidney,
and bladder. And he has six different groupings of functions.
(35:39):
Grouping one relaxes constraint, calms the mind, and relieves anxiety,
sinks theyond, clears heat, reduces fever and allergy. She regulates
the ch and relieves pain, balances circulation, and harmonizes digestion,
menstruation in urination. Three restores the nerves, lifts the mind,
and relieves deprived for promote sweating, dispels wind heat and
(36:03):
reduces fever, promotes expectoration and resolves fhlem. Five tonifies reproductive
chi and harmonizes labor and enhances delivery. And six reduces
contusion and swelling and stops bleeding, reduces infection and eliminates parasites,
reduces tumors. So those are his six groupings of functions.
(36:27):
And I'm going to be honest with you, I don't
like all these different approaches to the Chinese medicalization of
I think a lot of these are not definitive there
a lot of them are overblown. I think there's just
way too much that is going on with this. So
I'm going to give my opinion in simplify it based
on traditional uses of this serf. It's my opinion, so
(36:49):
you know, take it or leave it with this. I
have a question any info in parts of the reviews. Yeah,
I mentioned that at the very beginning that it's it's
primarily the leaves, though the whole herb can be used,
So thank you for the question. I appreciate it. Yeah, okay,
So here's my take on this. It seems like this
herb should enter the heart for its comminge effects, the
(37:11):
spleen for its digestion effects, the liver for its antidepressant effects,
and lungs for its anti asmatic and skin effects. So
I would say it enters the heart, spleen, liver, and lungs. Now,
some said kidneys, and I don't see that very much.
So I don't agree with that being cooling, you I said.
(37:31):
Most sources say it's cooling seems to be in line
with helping with calming and skin issues in Chinese functions.
It's Chinese functions should be calm the heart and mind,
move chi and support the lung and spleen chi and
aid digestion. So that's my simplification of everything that goes on,
and I think that kind of covers most, if not all,
(37:51):
of the traditional uses of this herb, at least from
a Chinese medical perspective. Comparison and combinations of the cerves, well, generally,
there weren't any direct comparisons for the herb and not
a lot of combinations in our literature searches. However, we
did see a couple places combining with Valerian root was
(38:13):
mentioned as helping with relaxing the mind and helping with insomnia,
and that seems like a really nice combination. Valerian root
is very helpful for insomnia, and I think this adds
a lot of anti anxiety and helping with insomnia as well,
So that seems like a really nice combination. Again, it
was mentioned on a couple sources, not you know, super major,
(38:35):
just like, oh and this is sometimes combined with you know,
and that's it. And that was the only thing that
was ever mentioned with a combination of the herb. Contents
of the serb. So the Herb Society of America has
an excellent passage on the contents of lemon balm and
here's the quote from there. Although over one hundred chemicals
have been identified in Melissa ficionalis. The main components of
(38:57):
the essential oil are citral, which are neural and gerannial.
Those are the actual central oils CITRONELLEL, centranellol, so it's
al on the end. Lini, lo al, Gernile and beta
carry carryophyaline oxide, carriofhalene oxide, beta carriofhyaline oxide. Evans, which
(39:23):
is from a cognizy book says lemon bom yields only
a small quantity of volatile oil, which is the same
thing as an essential oil, and it says point zero
six two point four percent are volatile oils, which nonetheless
give the plant wind crushed its strong lemon like odor.
Principal components of the oil are the aldehyde citral, composed
(39:46):
of the isomers geraniol and neyl and citronellol. So they
mentioned basically the same things as was mentioned by the
Arab Society of America, but it explains that geraniol and
neyl are actually isomers of citral, so they're all very
very closely related. The dolmcreath and clement, which is a
(40:10):
Pharmacognacy Book as well agree with these ingredients and adds
a few citral neural cetronollolol, beta, carriophylline, all those we've
talked about, but adds germocrine d and ersolic and oleonolic acids.
THERB Society of America also says lemon bomb contains flabinoids
(40:31):
which can have an antioxidant effect. Other phyto chemicals and
lemon balm which may provide antioxidant activity include phenolic acids, terpenes,
rosemarinic acid remember I mentioned rosemarinic action when we mentioned
rosemary was in the same family, and caffeic caffeic acids
as well. Lemon bomb also contains tannins, which are stringent
(40:54):
and a contribute to lemon bomb's anti viral effects, and
eugenol acetate, which is believed to be one of the
vital chemicals responsible for lemon bombs reported anti spasmodic effects
of helping spasms. They also say it contains vitamin C
and thiamen, which is one of the vitamin bs. A
(41:15):
lot of contents there. Let's talk a little bit about
the science of this herb, but all mean create clement,
which is that from a Congressy textbook says lemon bomb
is anti spasmodic, sedative, antimicrobial, and antiviral, which I find
to be the same thing. You know, if you have anemicrobo,
(41:36):
it's also antiviral. That okay. What is nice about this
herb is there appears to be several systematic reviews the
highest level of evidence, looking at various medicinal claims. I
love that. I don't often get to see systematic reviews
on herbs, so when I see them, I think that's
important because they are the highest level of evidence. One
review looked at the use of lemon bomb in relations
(41:56):
to obstetrics and kindacology, summarizing their results. In total, fifteen
studies were included. M officialis appears to be useful in
pain reduction, childbirth after pain and after pain, and primary
dysminerieas that's disminary, is painful mensies, improving premestrial symptoms and
(42:17):
postpartum blues. However, no effect was seen on the intensity
of menstrial bleeding, and effectiveness was mixed in relation to
sexual functioning and menopausal related symptoms due to selection bias.
In almost all studies, the evidence level of included studies
was considered a high risk of bias. They continue to
(42:38):
conclude this intervention might have benefits for gynecological conditions, but
it is not strongly supported by the available evidence. So
systematical reviews one of the things it does is it
doesn't just look at a study and says, oh, it
does this, it's really good. It kind of looks at
the methodology of that study as well as as other
(43:00):
studies that are saying similar things. And so the conclusion
here was there's some evidence, but it's not strong evidence
at this point for obseexist and gynecology, which you know,
frankly is pretty good for a NERB. You know, most
herbs don't have strong at this point, have strong studies
for it, So that's not bad. A narrow review of
(43:21):
lemon balm and other herbs effects on dementia found among
eight articles identified on lemon balm, seven studies found effective
in improving mood or cognition with dementia. So that's good.
I told you we were to talk a little bit
about dementia earlier. A systematic review and meta study, which
(43:42):
again systematic reviews I figure considered a subtype of meta
study or vice versus I can never keep that straight
in my head. But meta study kind of combines the
information from several studies and kind of uses the same
information and redes the the statistics to come up with
like a larger study. So that's again it's considered very
(44:05):
similar to systematic review, very high level of evidence. So
the systematic review of meta study looked at the effects
of lemon bomb on cardiometabolic effects and found intake was
associated with a reduced total cholesterol and a reduced systolic
blood pressure. Those are good things. However, intake was not
associated with statistically significant changes in triglycerides, low density lipoprotein
(44:29):
LDL the bad cholesterol, diastolic blood pressure, high sensitivity c
reactive protein levels, fasting blood sugar HbA one C which
is a measure of long term sugar control, insulin, or
high density lipoprotein held HDL, which is the good cholesterol levels.
(44:49):
So it didn't do a lot when it came to
cardiometabolic issues, and another systematic review of meta study found,
based on meta analysis results, lemon bom significantly improved mean
anxiety and depression scores compared with the placebo. However, they
did warn to the high level of heterogeneity between studies,
(45:13):
results should be interpreted with caution. In other words, high
level of a heterog heterog geneity between studies means that
they're all very different studies and they're hard to combine.
You gotta take the results with caution. And I did
look at a Cochran Library database search did not yield
(45:34):
any reviews about lemon Balm. Cochran Library Database is usually
pretty good about system systematic reviews and it's a pretty
good resource, and nothing was there. So overall, if you
look at the science of this, I gotta say, I mean,
some of this sounds kind of negative. Some of this,
like this last one. You know, the result should be
interpreted with caution. If it doesn't say that it's a
(45:55):
bad review, they all say that basically unless it's just
out of the park sort of review, So that that
doesn't bother me. I would say that looking at the science,
this is relatively positive, like you rarely get this level
of positive science from herbs, and so pretty good even
(46:17):
though not perfect and not you know things. But what
I take away from all this is definitely for anxiety
and depression, it seems to be really good and it
might be helpful on some of these other things we
mentioned as well. Let's talk about drug urban interactions. There
are some opinions that limabam may be synergistic with some
(46:38):
antidepressants and especially anxietalytics, but there does not appear to
be any issues in the literature. So this you'll have,
you know, people who will give opinions on drug er interactions,
and they will say things like this, this herb is
good for depression and for anxiety. Therefore there's a possibility
that it might you know, act in some way with
(47:00):
antidepressants and anxiolytics, which help anxiety, and therefore we need
to be careful about drug of interactions. Well, okay, I
guess on a surface level that is correct, but there's
no evidence really of that being the case, and so
I wouldn't worry about it. And it does seem like
people are taking anidepressants in anxiolytics with this herb and
(47:22):
not having major issues with that combination, though you know,
that wasn't specifically looked at. So I'm not advocating for that,
but I just I don't think there's any evidence that
there's some issue here, and that's that's important to me.
Is that there's some evidence. One study looked at the
in vitro effects of herbs, including lemon bomb, on the
metabolism of tomoxifen. The study found both lemon bomb and
(47:45):
skull cap may interfere with the bioactivation of tomoxifen. However,
this was not a clinical stace. So in vitro means
in glass, in test tubes, in experiments, not in vivo,
which means in life, which means animals or humans. And
it's not clinical, which means inhumans. So just because something
does something when you combine it in a test tube
(48:06):
does not mean it's going to do the same thing
when when it's taken in human form. So I I,
if I were taking tomoxifen, I'll be honest with I
was taking tamoxifen, I'd be very cautious of adding any
herbs into that regimen. That's an anti cancer agent. I
you know, I'd be very careful about adding anything into
a tomoximin regimen. Not that I wouldn't, but I'd be
(48:26):
very careful. Uh. And so the study, you know, just
adds a little bit more to that caution, But it
does not to me mean that there is this issue
in humans. It's D level evidence, lowest level of evidence
there is for an interaction. Two studies specifically say there
were no there were no significant risk of interaction in
(48:47):
the literature, So that's that's interially. So two other studies
that went through the literature just like I did. Maybe
my was probably not as in depth as these two studies.
They both came out said there doesn't seem to be
any interactions to be worried about in the literature for now.
One of my great sources for safety is the American
(49:08):
Herbal Products Association's Botanical Safety Handbook, and it puts the
SERB in interaction Class A their highest level of interaction
Interaction Class A, which means by highest I mean best
like least likely, and interaction Class A says herbs for
which no clinically relevant interactions are expected. So as far
(49:29):
as they're concerned, pretty darn safe for interactions concerns. Are
there any concerns for this IRB. So according to PDR
forerbal medicines, no health hazards or side effects are known.
In conjunction with the proper administration of designated therapeutic dosages.
A discussion of liver toxic herbs by the National Institutes
(49:50):
of Health says in small trials, limon bomb extructs have
appeared to be well tolerated, with only a few minor
adverse non specific effects such as headache, dizziness, bloating, which
often have been similar in frequency among persons receiving the placebo.
Despite wide scale use as an herbal supplement, limit bomb
extract has not been linked to published instances of clinically
(50:12):
apparent liver injury, so this was specific about liver, so
no issues for the liver there. Web MD, which remember
I said, is a little bit more on the conservative side,
says lemon bomb supplements are possibly safe when used at
a dose of up to five hundred mili comes daily
for up to six months. Side effects are generally mild
(50:33):
and mind include increased appetite, nausea, dizziness, and wheezing. There
isn't enough reliable information to know if lemon bomb is
safe to use for more than six months. It may
cause skin irritation. There isn't enough reliable information know if
lemon obamb is safe to use when pregnant or breastfeeding,
and they say stand on the safe side and avoid
use in the cases of pregnancy or bread or breastfeeding.
(50:59):
And finally, the American Herbal Prax Association's Botanical Safety Handbook
puts this serb and safety Class one again their safest class.
And safety Class one says herbs that can be safely
consumed when used appropriately. So there doesn't seem to be
many concerns here. There's a few issues maybe, but most
of the side effects seem pretty straightforward. I think this
(51:21):
is a pretty darn safe herb to be looking at,
and again I wouldn't have any questions about giving the
serb to a patient. Ah. Well, that is it for
this episode. Wrapping up. We started our discussion today with
(51:42):
a look at hormones and how they work on the body.
From there, we did our deep dive into lemon bomb
or Melissa fishanellis one of the most commonly used herbs,
used to help depression, anxiety, and gastro intestinal issues, among
other ailments. It was once considered a cure all. It
has a very long history of use and appears to
be quite safe overall. Another helpful herb. I got to
(52:06):
say after doing this, I certainly would not hesitate in
offering this herb. I have been after I did our
deep dive into Valerian root. I don't know how many
episodes ago I have suggested that to a few patients
and this I don't have any problem suggesting this for depression,
anxiety and insomnia, so I think this is another useful verb.
(52:29):
I don't know how strong a nerb it is, but
it did seem to have some pretty good effects on
depression anxiety. And if you have effects on depression anxiety,
often you will help insomnia as well. So I think
this is great for me as an acupunctual, as nervalist.
I probably wouldn't use it for gas from tesla issues
because that kind of is where we live in Chinese medicine,
(52:50):
so I probably stick to my Chinese medicine for that,
but for depression anxiety, this certainly might become part of
my toolkit. I think it's a really interesting nerb. In
our next episode, we will be exploring another interesting Chinese herb,
Yeo bangzi or Rcti fruituso Bangzha Rcti fruitus or great
(53:14):
burdock fruit. This herb is in the Chinese medical subcategory
of cool acrid herbs that release the exterior under the
category of release the exterior herbs. It is helpful for
certain types of colds, sore throats and as a seed
can help constipation. And as usual, we will be exploring
(53:35):
something a little different. Please join us for this intriguing episode.
See you in two weeks. Thank you very much for
joining us today. If you like this podcast, would you
do us a humongous favor, give us a five star
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(53:56):
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development activities at www dot Integrative Medicinecouncil dot org. That's
Integrative Medicine Council c o u n Cil dot org.
Don't forget that twenty percent off with the code s
(54:19):
H two zero o f F sperbs herbs sh twenty
off and you can always get in touch with me
at doctor Greg at sperbserbs dot com or at our
website www dot sperbserbs dot com. That's s p e
r B s h e r b s dot com.
We Americans have a silent h there which I know
(54:41):
very well because I taught this in Australia and they
would make fun of me. So sperbs and says we
say sperbserbs, but they would say sperbs heerbs. So there
we go. Thank you very much, and as usual have
quite the bibliography. Thank you very much. Hope to see
(55:02):
against sooner. The preceding was presented by doctor Greg S. Ferber.
We would like to thank Janelle S. Fowler's support and
everybody else who contributed to this program. Joe Roger Campbell
That Angelica Sperb. Welcome to episode eighty four, another exciting,
scintillating episode of Sperbs Herb. Today we're going to be
covering lemon bomb or Melissa Officionalyis, So without further ado,
(00:25):
let's get into it. Today's episode, we'll be looking at
another herb of the world, lemon bomb or Melissa Officionalis.
And I finally figure out what officionalyis is. It's a
very very common uh subtype of species of genuses and
(00:47):
I see it all the time, and I finally have
the what it means in Greeks. So we're gonna learn
that today. But lemon balm is a relatively well known
medicinal and culinary herb with some very interesting traditional uses.
As always, we will do our deep dive into this
herb and look at its traditional uses and its preparations,
interactions and cautions, and as usual, we will be adding
(01:10):
something a little different. We are going to look at
hormones and how they work on the body. It's going
to be another interesting vacation into the exciting continent of herbs.
Please join us. Before we get going, I just want
to remind everybody I have been teaching for quite a
while now on a wide variety of topics. If you
(01:32):
like this podcast and want to explore more of my courses,
they are available at www dot Integrative Medicine Council that's
all one word council, Celuncil dot org, dot comorg, dot
org and include a ton of different topics, including my
Drug Herb series looking at drugs and how they interact
(01:52):
with herbs and vice versa, several ethics and safety safety courses,
Chinese medical research, several treatment of can condition courses such
as arthritis, neck and back pain, COVID and depression and anxiety,
and one of my favorite courses, the Chinese Herbal First
Aid Kit. And they're all at a reasonable cost. You
(02:13):
can get an additional twenty percent off with the code
SH for sperbserbs SH twenty off. That's SH two zeroff
and that is all the wer case. So let's start
our exploration of hormones. So hormones and intocrine signaling stand
(02:34):
in contrast to neurotransmitters and neural signaling. Neural signaling uses
electrical potentials and neurotransmitters to create very rapid and very
limited in both time, so they happen in short periods
of time and location only in very specific locations, so
very rapid and very limited communication along neural pathways. These
(02:56):
allow for quick brief actions such as muscle contractions and
and cognition. In contrast, hormones are released into the bloodstream
can provide wide body responses, is less specific and is
much slower. Hormones can act anywhere from a few seconds
up to forty eight hours. Not a few seconds might
(03:16):
seem pretty quick, but neural signaling is usually in the
millisecond range, so thousandth of a second range, so even
a few seconds is several thousand times slower than neural signaling. Additionally,
hormones can react to external stimuli as well as internal,
while neurosignalen really reacts only to internal stimuli. Hormones are created, stored,
(03:41):
and released by the indocrine system. Indocrine glands, which are
ductless they do not have ducts, are the most important
aspect of the indocrine system. Though many, if not most,
non gland tissues can also display intocrine functions snobs. They
can make hormones as well. Hormones can have pro found
effects on the body and its tissues. A hormonal stimulus
(04:06):
typically produces one or more of the following changes. One
alters plasma membrane permeability, so this is the or membrane potential,
or both by opening or closing ion channels, so it
actually allows things to flow in and out of the
plasma membranes of cells. Stimulates synthesis of proteins or regulatory
(04:29):
molecules such as enzymes within the cell. Three, it activates
or deactivates enzymes. Four it induces secretory activity, in other words,
it makes something else get secreted. And five it can
stimulate mitosis, which is actually cell division, So it can
stimulates cell division as well. So there's a lot of
(04:51):
different things that it can. It can actually a lot
of different issues, a lot of different possibilities of how
hormones act. Before we get any more specific, we should
discuss hormones in the context of Chinese medicine. Well, we
say we should. I say we should because this has
a bent towards Chinese medicine and alternive medicine. In general.
(05:13):
Hormones are a relatively new discovery in medicine, and Chinese
medicine did not and does not have specific notions of hormones.
In general, hormones are said to be related to kidney
yin and yong. However, I think this is too simplistic.
The actions of a hormone of hormones are often included,
if not explicit, in our Chinese understanding of organ actions.
(05:37):
So when we go through what each organ does, it
kind of has some of the flavor of hormones as well.
So for example, you look at some of the kidney functions,
there definitely can be related to some of the cortico
steroid hormones that are part of the adrenal glands neck
right on top of the kidneys. Let's talk about types
(05:59):
of hormones. So basically there are two types of hormones,
amino acid and lipid. Amino Acid hormones are synthesized from
amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins, and
can be categorized as one of three types. Amine hormones
are modified amino acids primarily tripped to fanin tyrosine. Those
(06:20):
are the two or two of approximately the twenty one
or twenty two amino acids that are commonly found in
the body. Peptide hormones are short change short chains of
multiple amino acids. So once you start hooking them together.
They're peptide hormones, and then we have protein Hormones are
(06:40):
long chains of amino acids, and of course amino acids
are web makeup proteins and help us build a large
portion of our body. Lipid hormones are the other type,
and lipid hormones are primarily steroid based. Steroids are formed
from cholesterol. They are very hydrophobic and need to be
(07:02):
transported in the blood with plasma proteins, often albumin, often albumin. Generally,
amino acid hormones have a much shorter life than lipid
based hormones. Let's talk a little bit about these steroids.
We said they're steroid hormones, and cholesterol is the major
(07:25):
steroid alcohol. Alcohol just means it has an oh group
a hydroxyl group somewhere. So cholesterol is the major steroid
alcohol in animals and is part of the structure of
cell membranes, a precursor to bile acids, steroid hormones, which
is what we're talking about today, and vitamin D. Cholesterol
is comprised of a steroid nucleus of four hydrocarbon rings
(07:47):
which are labeled A through D. A hydroxyl group which
is oh, a carbon three, an eight carbon chain attached
to carbon seventeen, and a double bond between carbon five
and six. Okay, that's all kind of technical organic chemistry stuff,
but that's technically what a steroid is. Let's talk briefly
(08:09):
about hormone action pathways. There are basically two types of
pathways explaining how hormones act on the body. These are
pathways which either use cell membrane hormone receptors or those
that use intracellular receptors. So either a receptor that's attached
to the cell membrane and actually usually goes through the
cell membrane, and then there's something that just totally bypassed
(08:32):
the cell membrane. The steroid hormones can because they're very hydrophobic,
which means they don't like water. We do like fat,
and our cell membrane is mostly fat. Allows it to
go straight through the cell membrane, and so then there
are intracellar cellular receptors for them. Cell membrane receptors are
usually how hydrophilic. Those that technically that means loving water,
(08:55):
so those who like water hormones, so these are hydrophilic
hormones act on the cells as they cannot diffuse through
the phospholipid bilayer or the cell membrane rumor that's how
our cell membrane is laid out. It's called a phospholipid
bilator and has phospho which is hydrophilic on the outside,
lipids on the inside, and water doesn't want to pass
(09:16):
through that, which is good. Otherwise all our water and
our cells would leak out, so we want that barrier there.
After activation of the membrane receptor, a second messenger system
is activated, most often a G protein system. That's what
this second messenger system is called. G protein receptors are
comprised of a receptor that spans the plasma membrane of
(09:38):
the cell and is attached to a G protein on
the inside of the cell. A ligend or in this
case we're talking about the hormone. Ligen is just anything
that attaches to a receptor. So a ligand binds the receptor,
which causes the alpha subunit to buying GTP, which is
guantysine triphosphate and disassociate into two interests of their components,
(09:59):
the alpha GTP subunit and the beta gamma subunit. So
it's a little technical, but basically what happens is you
have a receptor causes a conformational change that allows GTP
to be bound and to disassociate two subcomponents from that
g protein. These can interact with other molecules to exert
(10:20):
their exert their influence on the cell. These other molecules
are called second messenger systems. Three most common of these
second messenger systems or the cyclic identisy and monophosphate or
the SAMP cyclic AMP system, the IP three system, and
the diacylglycerool system. This is getting into some pretty good biochemistry,
(10:44):
so we're not gonna get too far into it here,
but here's the bottom line with the second messenger systems
and why they're so important. Second messenger systems tend to
magnify the effect of the initial activation as each step
of the cascade acts on several other chemicals just one.
This means one geoprotein activation can affect hundreds or thousands
(11:06):
of proteins and this process is called amplification. And that's
why these reprotein receptors are really important. And how just
a little hormone, a little chemical can have a huge
effect is because of this amplification. So let's talk about
interest cell of the receptors, the other type main type
of receptors for hormones. These receptors remain completely within the
(11:30):
cell in the cytosol, which is the inside of the cell,
basically the fluid inside of the cell. This means a
drug needs to be lipophilic enough, which means it needs
to be fat loving enough to pass through the cell
membrane because it's mostly fat in order to bind with
the receptor. Once bound, the drug receptor complex moves into
(11:51):
the nucleus of the cell, which is where the DNA
is stored, and promotes DNA transcription to messenger RNA and
ultimately increases protein synthesis. Messenger RNA goes off and gets
in that sort of becomes the blueprint for proteins. So
mRNA is very important. Steroid hormones are common ligends for
(12:13):
these receptors, which is why we're talking about them. And
that pretty much concludes our introduction to hormones. Nice little introduction,
and so with that intro to hormones, let's get into
today's herb that was a little something different. So today
(12:33):
we're talking about Melissa Fiicionellis or lemon bomb. It comes
from the family Lemiassa, which we've actually had several herbs
now that are in this family. It's a great family.
We're gonna find out a little bit more about it
in just a minute. The species is Melissa fiicionellis l.
L if you remember, refers to the biologist, and in
(12:54):
this case, this refers to Linnaeus, who's actually kind of
considered the firsty. He's not the first botanist or biologist,
but he is the He's the one who kind of
created this binomial system that we use, so whenever you
see L, it was like one of the first species
that was actually put into the system, So this is
(13:15):
originally there. The medicinal part of limon bomb is mostly
the leaves, most things that leaves, though the whole plant
can be used medicinally as well. Other names for this
is just bomb, so forget lemon, balm, it's just bomb
or B. Bomb is a very common We'll see be
a lot. We're gonna find out why that is in
just a few So b bomb, be herb, blue bomb, Melissa,
(13:39):
Melissa bomb, balm, mint, why is it mint? We're gonna
find that out, too common, bomb cure all. Sometimes it's
just called cure all. This was considered a cure all.
It could help everything. Dropsy plant, honey plant, sweet bomb,
sweet marry, English bomb, garden bomb, and this is one
(14:00):
of my favorites. Hearts to light like that for this,
let's talk briefly about the family and then we'll get
back to the herb specifically. So the Lemiassier family includes
flowering plants commonly known as the mint, dad, nettle, or
sage family. Right there you can see why balm mint
might be one of the names. Is it's in the
(14:22):
mint family. Generally, Lemiassier is considered the more correct name.
The Labbyatier Labiate is a correct alternative. These have hundreds
of years of history and name changes, so sometimes you'll
see things like this, but right now le Lemonassier Lemiassier
is the more correct name, although you will still sometimes
(14:43):
hear labat These include many aromatic, culinary, and medicinal herbs,
including basil, mint, rosemary. Rosemary is interesting because we don't
really discuss it very much, but one of the components
of of lemon is rose marinic acid, so that actually
(15:04):
is one of the chemicals contents from rosemary, sage, savory,
marjoram oregano, hissop, time, lavender, salvia, catnip, oriental motherwort, and perrilla.
So we've had a lot of these in our in
our conversations on herbs. There are approximately two hundred and
(15:25):
thirty six in genera and up to seven thousand and
five hundred species, and the flowers are usually bisexual, so
they have both sexes in it. So that's just a
little bit on the Lamassier family. Let's get into a
little bit of the history and and and this is
where I've referred to a few things. So melissa means
(15:47):
be in Greek, so this actually means B. So that's
why you saw B so many times in the English names,
the common some of the common names is because melissa
means B and a fish. And the reason why this
is over and over again when you read up on this,
it's thought that if you plant lemon bam, it will
(16:07):
well we're going to see this in just a second,
that bees will be attracted to it. So that's why
B is such an important part. Bees are such an
important part of this herb. And so melissa in efficientalyis
I love learning this means used in medicine. So that's
why a lot of the herbs, the the medicinal herbs
that we see and in efficientalysis, as as the as
(16:29):
the as the species name, because they are used in medicine.
So that's cool. I got to learn something new there.
Lemon Bam has a documented history over two thousand years old,
where it was used medicinally by the Greeks and Romans,
and was written about in Theophrastus's Historia Plantarum and three
(16:50):
hundred BCE. That predates written herb that we have today.
Written herb references in China. The first ones are about
two hundred seas so that's about, you know, four or
five hundred years before in in China. The first century
(17:11):
Roman Pliny the Elder wrote about planning it near bee
hives as they would encourage bees to return. So you
can see from very early this has been associated with bees.
It was brought to Spain by the Moors in the
seventh century. Many accounts of the medicinal uses of the
serb are found in the Middle Ages, throughout Europe and
the Persian and Arab world. This included a discussion of
(17:33):
its anti depression properties by the famous Persian physician Avicena,
who we've discussed in one of our Something little Different.
The English bodanist Nicholas Culpepper, who lived from sixteen sixteen
to sixteen fifty four, said lemon bomb was good for
melancholy and digestion. The London Dispensary in sixteen ninety six
(17:55):
stated an essence of bomb given in canary wine every
morning will renew youth, strengthen the brain, relieve linguishing nature
and prevent baldness. So they are still back then trying
to prevent baldness, which I find very funny, especially as
a baldman. Here's an excerp from Nicholas Culpepper. Is the
(18:19):
complete herbal, which is kind of considered if you're studying
European herbs, this is kind of considered, you know, an
important home initial, you know, older tome. So here's what
it says. This herb is so well known to be
an inhabitant and almost almost in every garden, that I
shall not need to write any description thereof, although it's virtues,
(18:41):
which are many, may not be omitted. Under government and
virtues of this herb. It is an herb of Jupiter
and under cancer and strengthens nature much in all its actions.
Let a serrup made with the Jews use of it,
and sugar, as you shall be taught at the later
(19:03):
end of this book, be kept in every gentlewoman's house
to relieve the weak stomachs and sick bodies of their poor,
sickly neighbors. As also this the herb kept dry in
the house. That so, with other convenient simples, you may
make it into an electorory with electury e l e
(19:24):
c t u ar y electuary with honey, according to
according as the disease is, you shall be taught at
the later end of my book. The Arabian physicians have
extolled the virtues thereof to the Skies, although the Greeks
thought it not worth mentioning. Sarafio says, it causes the
(19:47):
mind and heart to become merry, and revives the heart
faintings and swimings, especially of such who are overtaken in sleep,
and drives away all troublesome cares and thoughts out of
the mind rising from melancholy or black collar colar, black
yeah colar, black colar, which avison, that's the same avesna
(20:10):
that we mentioned earlier. Also confirms it is very good
to help digestion and open obstructions of the brain, and
hath so much purging quality in it, saith avisin as
to expel those melancholy vapors from the spirits and blood
which are in the heart and arteries, although it cannot
(20:31):
do it do so in other parts of the body.
Diascurides says that the leaves steeped in wine and the
wine drank, and the leaves externally applied is a remedy
against the stings of a scorpion and the bitings of
mad dogs. That commands the decoction thereof for women to
(20:53):
bathe or sit in to procure their courses, which means menstruation.
It is good to wash a making teeth therewith and
profitable for those that have the bloody flux. The leaves,
also with a little niter taken in drink, are good
against the surfeit of mushrooms, and there's too many mushrooms.
(21:15):
Helps the griping pains of the belly, or sometimes I
hear griping, but it's also gripping pains of the body.
Of the of the belly and being made into an
electuary is good for them that cannot fetch their breath.
Used with salt, it takes away nds, kernels or hard
(21:36):
swellings in the flesh or throat, cleanses foul sores, and
eases pains of the gout. Is good for the liver
and spleen. A tansy or candle made with eggs and
juice thereof while it is young. Putting to it some
sugar and rose water is good for a woman in childbirth,
(21:58):
when the afterbirth is not thoroughly avoided, and for their
faintings upon or in their sore travail. Their herb bruised
and boiled in a little wine and oil and laid
warm on a boil will ripen it and break it. Wow,
that was a lot, and that's interesting. This is again,
(22:19):
this was written sixteen fifty three ish, So this is
you know, you know all, you know, three hundred and
seventy five years old. That's quite a lot other uses
of this herb. Lemon balm has many uses other than
the medicinal ones we're about to explore. It is an
ornamental plant. Its essential oil can be an ingredient in perfume,
(22:39):
and it can be used in toothpaste. So also used
as a culinary herb, especially in fish dishes, and as
the main ingredient in lemon, balm and pesta, which sounds delicious.
The Herb Society of America says it can be used
in many different types of dishes, from beverages to appetizers,
main courses, and desserts. It can be added to salad, sandwiches, soups, stews, butters, cheeses,
(23:03):
fish stuffings for poultry, pork and veal, egg dishes, vegetables,
fruit cups, jams, jellies, sauces, marinads, dressings, herb vinegar, wine,
punch cakes, custards, tarts, sorbets, ice cream, cookies, crepes, pies,
and cheesecakes. And now I'm hungry. The Herb Society of
(23:27):
America also discusses its use in crafts such as polpiri
and sleep pillows and floral arrangements, and cosmetics such as
in homemade toilet trees, so soaps and washes and things
along those lines. So it has lots of other uses,
all right, Let's get into its traditional uses. One of
(23:49):
my sources for this is the PDR for Herbal Medicines,
which I really like. It's a very large book with
a good scientific basis to it. PDR is some thing
I remember back in the day always as someone interested
in medicine. That it's called the physician's desk reference. That's
what it refers to. And the original PDR was all
(24:10):
about drugs, so if you had a question or a drug,
you go to the PDR and have all the information there.
And so the PDR was that. So here's a PDR
for herbal medicines and it says it was approved by
commission e for nervousness and insomnia. So if you're not
we've mentioned commissioning multiple times on this podcast. Commissioning was
(24:31):
commissioned in Europe and I believe the nineties, maybe they
as early as the eighties, and it was designed to
look at were herbs Did these herbs actually do what
it's said to do. So when it's approved by commissioning,
it says there's enough evidence to say that it may
do something for these things. It's not definitive. And now
(24:52):
we consider a bit older, it has not been kept updated,
but still commissioning, if it's approved, means that it can
be easily sol in Europe, and so that's a pretty
big hurdle for an herb to overcome at this point,
so commissioning approval is useful and is still a relatively
important sort of thing. Though neuro herbs will would not
(25:15):
have the ability to get approved by commissioning because it's
no longer around, but this was, and so this was
approved by commissioning. For nervousness and insomnia, PDR says. Unproven
uses include in folk medicine, the drug is utilized as
decoctions of the flowering shoots for nervous complaints, lower abdominal disorders, metiterrorism,
(25:36):
which I'm not sure what that is. I meant to
look that up, but man, that's a term I haven't heard, metterroism,
nervous gastric complaints, hysteria and melancholia, chronic bronchial qatar, which
is cough, nervous palpitations, vomiting, migraine, nervous debility, headache, and
(25:58):
high blood pressure. It is used externally for rheumatism, nerve pains,
and stiff necks, and it has a parenthesis compress so
as a compress for stiff necks. The Herb Society of
America says, although it has been used primarily for depression
and anxiety, insomnia, and dyspepsia. The long list melodies for
(26:21):
which lemon bomb has traditionally been used also include bronchitis, asma, coughs, fever,
menstrual problems, hypertension, migraines, shock, vertigo, exema, and skin problems, gout,
insect bites and stings, snake bites, and skin infections. Some
(26:41):
even believe the plant would remedy baldness, as we mentioned.
As we mentioned when we've read Nicholas Culpepper's comments, WebM
d says this irve can be used for cold sores, anxiety, stress, insomnia, indigestion, dementia,
(27:03):
and many other conditions. Dementia's interesting. We're gonna there was
a relatively recent stay that said it can actually be
helpful in dementia. Well, we're going to talk about that
when we talk about science. In just a little bit.
Drugs dot Com had an entry on it. Drugs dot
Com doesn't have a lot of entries on herbs. When
it does, it's usually a more commonly used herb, so
drugs dot Com says it may help decrease stress and
(27:26):
agitation and patients with dementia and Alzheimer's disease, lower cholesterol,
and herpes. Help herpes as well, So there's a lot
of stuff. Mount Sinai Health, which again is a pretty
prominent healthcare thing, adds it may help with insomnia and anxiety,
and finally, Healthline says it can also help menstrual cramps,
(27:47):
toothaches and headaches. So lots of different sort of traditional
uses and maybe a little bit more modern uses as well.
Let's talk about itsage in preparation. According to the PDR
for herbal Medicines, dosage should be three hundred and ninety
five milligrams in capsule form. To prepare an infusion, pour
(28:11):
one cup of hot water over one point five to
four point five grams of the drug, and strain after
ten minutes so no words. Steep it for ten minutes.
The average daily dose is one point five to four
point five grams of drug. That's according to the PDR
for herbal Medicines. Mount Sinai says the following about dosing
of the serb for adults, Capsules take three hundred to
(28:32):
five hundred milligrams dried lemon bomb three times daily or
as needed, TA one point five to four point five grams,
which is a quarter to one teaspoon of dried lemon
bomb herb in hot water, steep and drink up to
four times daily as a tincture. Sixty drops of lemon
bomb daily. I don't like this as a dosage because
(28:55):
teachers can be in lots of different strengths, and so
I don't like I don't know what sixty drops live
and bomb daily means. I don't know what strength they're
talking about as a tincture. So I think that is
babbledegook gobbledegook, not bobbledygoog do. I like bobble goop. We
all say that for now topical they say applied topical
(29:15):
cream to affected area three times daily or as directed.
Web Md says lemon bomb is available in many forms,
including supplements, combination products, lotions, ointments, massage, oils, and others.
There isn't enough reliable information to know what an appropriate
dose of lemon bomb might be. Keep in mind the
natural product not always necessarily safe, and dosages can be important.
(29:38):
Be sure to follow relevant directions on product labels and
consult a healthcare professional before using WebMD. I think tends
to be a little bit more on the conservative side
on some of these things. So basically what they're saying is,
we don't know, be careful, all right, that's fine, But
what was interested about is all the different products. It's
in a lot of different products out there. The Energetics
(30:04):
of Western Herbs and Material Medical Integrating Western and Oriental
Herb Medicine Traditions, Volume two says the serb should be
used in the following doses as an infusion eight to
sixteen grams as a tincture. This as a tincture makes
a lot more sense to me. It says two to
five millilters at one to three strength and forty five
percent alcohol. So that gives me enough information to create
(30:27):
a tincture and to be able to use it at
this dosing. Just saying sixty drops of a tincture doesn't
tell me anything about the strength, how much lemon balm
there is in there. Essential oil use one drop in
a gel cap topped with some olive oil, and I'm
assuming that means because it's a gael cap internally. So
(30:48):
that's that's an interesting one. And the essential oils are
important for this herb. We're gonna talk about that in
a little bit, but not usually the way I would
take something. I always like to talk about quality of
the herbs we're talking about, and unfortunately, it was difficult
to find anything on what makes good quality lemon bomb.
I put it in to both Google and Google Scholar
(31:11):
to see if I can come up with some you know,
what is good quality lemon bomb. Now I can't tell
you because I, you know, I take photos of these herbs.
I order these herbs online. There was sometimes when you
order herbs, they'll say, Okay, this is great, A, this
is great C. They'll talk about grading of it. There
(31:32):
was nothing like that with lemon balm. It all seemed
most of what I found with lemon balm was was
kind of chopped up, chopped up leaves and maybe a
little bit of stems in it. So it was, you know,
you know, basically you're looking for nice, green and clean
sort of stuff as far as I'm concerned, But I
don't know if anything was really discernible as to what
(31:54):
was good quality or poor quality with this. So let's
get into try the medical actions. There's because this is
such a popular Western herb, there's a lot on Chinese
medicine for this. So one source says this herb is
chiang fung tsao in Chinese. It is the only source
that I really there is another source that that used
(32:15):
the same term, but I kind of a lot of
the language was the same as this website, so I
feel like they copied it from this website, so I
don't consider it a separate source. So this is the
only source that actually, you know, had a Chinese name
for this chen feng tso. And while I cannot be
sure due to lack of tone marks and characters, I
think this translates as fragrant wind grass, So chiang usually
(32:39):
means fragrant and is usually We're going to find out
that most of the sources say this is in Chinese
say this is an aromatic urb. It makes sense. It
is quite an aromatic herb, and chiang is often the
fragrant is how that's often described, so it makes sense.
I think fragrant wing grass is probably cracked, but I
can't be for sure. The translation of it the source
(33:03):
from the White Rabbit Institute of Healing. This source from
the White Rabbit Institute of Healing goes on to say
lemon bomb and slightly bitter, aromatic sour and slightly cooling,
and enters the stomach and heart. I have used White
Rabbit Institute of Healing before as the source of Chinese
medical approaches to Western nerves, and I think it's a
(33:24):
pretty good one. I don't think there's anything definitive on
a lot of this, so I can't say it's a
definitive source, but I can say it's a decent source
for this information. Its actions, according to them, are cooling
and drying, commshn moves chi sedate spasms, releases to the exterior,
restores jing or essence, harmonizes labor, stops bleeding, restrains infection,
(33:51):
clears parasites. That's a lot of actions for this. It's
a like I said, it's a cure on another source,
another one that I kind of think is a dec
source for this is Chinese Nutrition dot org, and it
says it's bitter, sour, and cold and enters the lung, heart, kidney, liver,
and pericardium. The source did not include any Chinese actions
(34:12):
of the herb. Yet another source of jure, Rbals at
Herbals adds a lot more confusion than the Chinese properties
of the CRB by saying it is warm, so all
the others have said it's cool and cold. This says
it's warm and spicy and enters the lung and liver.
It says it's Chinese actions include warms the interior and
expels cold, and the spicy and punging components help dry,
(34:34):
dampness and circulate chi energy and bodily fluids. Due to
its unique qualities, lemon bomb is an excellent option for
resolving internal coldness with CHI and young deficiency. So I
disagree with this, I don't. I think looking at a
whole bunch of different sources, they all tend to say
this is cooling or cold. This is the only source
(34:56):
that it says it's warming, and I'm not sure sure
it's a good source, but I threw it in there
for some controversy. Then there's that book that we mentioned earlier,
The Energetics of Western Herbs and Material Medica Integrating Western
Oriental Herbal Medicine Traditions by Holmes, which is a two
volume book. It's got a lot of Western nerves, a
(35:17):
lot of information, and a lot of good information, though
I think sometimes it's a little overblown. But let's say
what let's see what it says home says lemon bomb
is somewhat bitter sour and its stringent cool and dry,
and enters the heart, pericardium, triple burner, lung, liver, kidney,
and bladder. And he has six different groupings of functions.
(35:39):
Grouping one relaxes constraint, calms the mind, and relieves anxiety,
sinks theyond, clears heat, reduces fever and allergy. She regulates
the ch and relieves pain, balances circulation, and harmonizes digestion,
menstruation in urination. Three restores the nerves, lifts the mind,
and relieves deprived for promote sweating, dispels wind heat and
(36:03):
reduces fever, promotes expectoration and resolves fhlem. Five tonifies reproductive
chi and harmonizes labor and enhances delivery. And six reduces
contusion and swelling and stops bleeding, reduces infection and eliminates parasites,
reduces tumors. So those are his six groupings of functions.
(36:27):
And I'm going to be honest with you, I don't
like all these different approaches to the Chinese medicalization of
I think a lot of these are not definitive there
a lot of them are overblown. I think there's just
way too much that is going on with this. So
I'm going to give my opinion in simplify it based
on traditional uses of this serf. It's my opinion, so
(36:49):
you know, take it or leave it with this. I
have a question any info in parts of the reviews. Yeah,
I mentioned that at the very beginning that it's it's
primarily the leaves, though the whole herb can be used,
So thank you for the question. I appreciate it. Yeah, okay,
So here's my take on this. It seems like this
herb should enter the heart for its comminge effects, the
(37:11):
spleen for its digestion effects, the liver for its antidepressant effects,
and lungs for its anti asmatic and skin effects. So
I would say it enters the heart, spleen, liver, and lungs. Now,
some said kidneys, and I don't see that very much.
So I don't agree with that being cooling, you I said.
(37:31):
Most sources say it's cooling seems to be in line
with helping with calming and skin issues in Chinese functions.
It's Chinese functions should be calm the heart and mind,
move chi and support the lung and spleen chi and
aid digestion. So that's my simplification of everything that goes on,
and I think that kind of covers most, if not all,
(37:51):
of the traditional uses of this herb, at least from
a Chinese medical perspective. Comparison and combinations of the cerves, well, generally,
there weren't any direct comparisons for the herb and not
a lot of combinations in our literature searches. However, we
did see a couple places combining with Valerian root was
(38:13):
mentioned as helping with relaxing the mind and helping with insomnia,
and that seems like a really nice combination. Valerian root
is very helpful for insomnia, and I think this adds
a lot of anti anxiety and helping with insomnia as well,
So that seems like a really nice combination. Again, it
was mentioned on a couple sources, not you know, super major,
(38:35):
just like, oh and this is sometimes combined with you know,
and that's it. And that was the only thing that
was ever mentioned with a combination of the herb. Contents
of the serb. So the Herb Society of America has
an excellent passage on the contents of lemon balm and
here's the quote from there. Although over one hundred chemicals
have been identified in Melissa ficionalis. The main components of
(38:57):
the essential oil are citral, which are neural and gerannial.
Those are the actual central oils CITRONELLEL, centranellol, so it's
al on the end. Lini, lo al, Gernile and beta
carry carryophyaline oxide, carriofhalene oxide, beta carriofhyaline oxide. Evans, which
(39:23):
is from a cognizy book says lemon bom yields only
a small quantity of volatile oil, which is the same
thing as an essential oil, and it says point zero
six two point four percent are volatile oils, which nonetheless
give the plant wind crushed its strong lemon like odor.
Principal components of the oil are the aldehyde citral, composed
(39:46):
of the isomers geraniol and neyl and citronellol. So they
mentioned basically the same things as was mentioned by the
Arab Society of America, but it explains that geraniol and
neyl are actually isomers of citral, so they're all very
very closely related. The dolmcreath and clement, which is a
(40:10):
Pharmacognacy Book as well agree with these ingredients and adds
a few citral neural cetronollolol, beta, carriophylline, all those we've
talked about, but adds germocrine d and ersolic and oleonolic acids.
THERB Society of America also says lemon bomb contains flabinoids
(40:31):
which can have an antioxidant effect. Other phyto chemicals and
lemon balm which may provide antioxidant activity include phenolic acids, terpenes,
rosemarinic acid remember I mentioned rosemarinic action when we mentioned
rosemary was in the same family, and caffeic caffeic acids
as well. Lemon bomb also contains tannins, which are stringent
(40:54):
and a contribute to lemon bomb's anti viral effects, and
eugenol acetate, which is believed to be one of the
vital chemicals responsible for lemon bombs reported anti spasmodic effects
of helping spasms. They also say it contains vitamin C
and thiamen, which is one of the vitamin bs. A
(41:15):
lot of contents there. Let's talk a little bit about
the science of this herb, but all mean create clement,
which is that from a Congressy textbook says lemon bomb
is anti spasmodic, sedative, antimicrobial, and antiviral, which I find
to be the same thing. You know, if you have anemicrobo,
(41:36):
it's also antiviral. That okay. What is nice about this
herb is there appears to be several systematic reviews the
highest level of evidence, looking at various medicinal claims. I
love that. I don't often get to see systematic reviews
on herbs, so when I see them, I think that's
important because they are the highest level of evidence. One
review looked at the use of lemon bomb in relations
(41:56):
to obstetrics and kindacology, summarizing their results. In total, fifteen
studies were included. M officialis appears to be useful in
pain reduction, childbirth after pain and after pain, and primary
dysminerieas that's disminary, is painful mensies, improving premestrial symptoms and
(42:17):
postpartum blues. However, no effect was seen on the intensity
of menstrial bleeding, and effectiveness was mixed in relation to
sexual functioning and menopausal related symptoms due to selection bias.
In almost all studies, the evidence level of included studies
was considered a high risk of bias. They continue to
(42:38):
conclude this intervention might have benefits for gynecological conditions, but
it is not strongly supported by the available evidence. So
systematical reviews one of the things it does is it
doesn't just look at a study and says, oh, it
does this, it's really good. It kind of looks at
the methodology of that study as well as as other
(43:00):
studies that are saying similar things. And so the conclusion
here was there's some evidence, but it's not strong evidence
at this point for obseexist and gynecology, which you know,
frankly is pretty good for a NERB. You know, most
herbs don't have strong at this point, have strong studies
for it, So that's not bad. A narrow review of
(43:21):
lemon balm and other herbs effects on dementia found among
eight articles identified on lemon balm, seven studies found effective
in improving mood or cognition with dementia. So that's good.
I told you we were to talk a little bit
about dementia earlier. A systematic review and meta study, which
(43:42):
again systematic reviews I figure considered a subtype of meta
study or vice versus I can never keep that straight
in my head. But meta study kind of combines the
information from several studies and kind of uses the same
information and redes the the statistics to come up with
like a larger study. So that's again it's considered very
(44:05):
similar to systematic review, very high level of evidence. So
the systematic review of meta study looked at the effects
of lemon bomb on cardiometabolic effects and found intake was
associated with a reduced total cholesterol and a reduced systolic
blood pressure. Those are good things. However, intake was not
associated with statistically significant changes in triglycerides, low density lipoprotein
(44:29):
LDL the bad cholesterol, diastolic blood pressure, high sensitivity c
reactive protein levels, fasting blood sugar HbA one C which
is a measure of long term sugar control, insulin, or
high density lipoprotein held HDL, which is the good cholesterol levels.
(44:49):
So it didn't do a lot when it came to
cardiometabolic issues, and another systematic review of meta study found,
based on meta analysis results, lemon bom significantly improved mean
anxiety and depression scores compared with the placebo. However, they
did warn to the high level of heterogeneity between studies,
(45:13):
results should be interpreted with caution. In other words, high
level of a heterog heterog geneity between studies means that
they're all very different studies and they're hard to combine.
You gotta take the results with caution. And I did
look at a Cochran Library database search did not yield
(45:34):
any reviews about lemon Balm. Cochran Library Database is usually
pretty good about system systematic reviews and it's a pretty
good resource, and nothing was there. So overall, if you
look at the science of this, I gotta say, I mean,
some of this sounds kind of negative. Some of this,
like this last one. You know, the result should be
interpreted with caution. If it doesn't say that it's a
(45:55):
bad review, they all say that basically unless it's just
out of the park sort of review, So that that
doesn't bother me. I would say that looking at the science,
this is relatively positive, like you rarely get this level
of positive science from herbs, and so pretty good even
(46:17):
though not perfect and not you know things. But what
I take away from all this is definitely for anxiety
and depression, it seems to be really good and it
might be helpful on some of these other things we
mentioned as well. Let's talk about drug urban interactions. There
are some opinions that limabam may be synergistic with some
(46:38):
antidepressants and especially anxietalytics, but there does not appear to
be any issues in the literature. So this you'll have,
you know, people who will give opinions on drug er interactions,
and they will say things like this, this herb is
good for depression and for anxiety. Therefore there's a possibility
that it might you know, act in some way with
(47:00):
antidepressants and anxiolytics, which help anxiety, and therefore we need
to be careful about drug of interactions. Well, okay, I
guess on a surface level that is correct, but there's
no evidence really of that being the case, and so
I wouldn't worry about it. And it does seem like
people are taking anidepressants in anxiolytics with this herb and
(47:22):
not having major issues with that combination, though you know,
that wasn't specifically looked at. So I'm not advocating for that,
but I just I don't think there's any evidence that
there's some issue here, and that's that's important to me.
Is that there's some evidence. One study looked at the
in vitro effects of herbs, including lemon bomb, on the
metabolism of tomoxifen. The study found both lemon bomb and
(47:45):
skull cap may interfere with the bioactivation of tomoxifen. However,
this was not a clinical stace. So in vitro means
in glass, in test tubes, in experiments, not in vivo,
which means in life, which means animals or humans. And
it's not clinical, which means inhumans. So just because something
does something when you combine it in a test tube
(48:06):
does not mean it's going to do the same thing
when when it's taken in human form. So I I,
if I were taking tomoxifen, I'll be honest with I
was taking tamoxifen, I'd be very cautious of adding any
herbs into that regimen. That's an anti cancer agent. I
you know, I'd be very careful about adding anything into
a tomoximin regimen. Not that I wouldn't, but I'd be
(48:26):
very careful. Uh. And so the study, you know, just
adds a little bit more to that caution, But it
does not to me mean that there is this issue
in humans. It's D level evidence, lowest level of evidence
there is for an interaction. Two studies specifically say there
were no there were no significant risk of interaction in
(48:47):
the literature, So that's that's interially. So two other studies
that went through the literature just like I did. Maybe
my was probably not as in depth as these two studies.
They both came out said there doesn't seem to be
any interactions to be worried about in the literature for now.
One of my great sources for safety is the American
(49:08):
Herbal Products Association's Botanical Safety Handbook, and it puts the
SERB in interaction Class A their highest level of interaction
Interaction Class A, which means by highest I mean best
like least likely, and interaction Class A says herbs for
which no clinically relevant interactions are expected. So as far
(49:29):
as they're concerned, pretty darn safe for interactions concerns. Are
there any concerns for this IRB. So according to PDR
forerbal medicines, no health hazards or side effects are known.
In conjunction with the proper administration of designated therapeutic dosages.
A discussion of liver toxic herbs by the National Institutes
(49:50):
of Health says in small trials, limon bomb extructs have
appeared to be well tolerated, with only a few minor
adverse non specific effects such as headache, dizziness, bloating, which
often have been similar in frequency among persons receiving the placebo.
Despite wide scale use as an herbal supplement, limit bomb
extract has not been linked to published instances of clinically
(50:12):
apparent liver injury, so this was specific about liver, so
no issues for the liver there. Web MD, which remember
I said, is a little bit more on the conservative side,
says lemon bomb supplements are possibly safe when used at
a dose of up to five hundred mili comes daily
for up to six months. Side effects are generally mild
(50:33):
and mind include increased appetite, nausea, dizziness, and wheezing. There
isn't enough reliable information to know if lemon bomb is
safe to use for more than six months. It may
cause skin irritation. There isn't enough reliable information know if
lemon obamb is safe to use when pregnant or breastfeeding,
and they say stand on the safe side and avoid
use in the cases of pregnancy or bread or breastfeeding.
(50:59):
And finally, the American Herbal Prax Association's Botanical Safety Handbook
puts this serb and safety Class one again their safest class.
And safety Class one says herbs that can be safely
consumed when used appropriately. So there doesn't seem to be
many concerns here. There's a few issues maybe, but most
of the side effects seem pretty straightforward. I think this
(51:21):
is a pretty darn safe herb to be looking at,
and again I wouldn't have any questions about giving the
serb to a patient. Ah. Well, that is it for
this episode. Wrapping up. We started our discussion today with
(51:42):
a look at hormones and how they work on the body.
From there, we did our deep dive into lemon bomb
or Melissa fishanellis one of the most commonly used herbs,
used to help depression, anxiety, and gastro intestinal issues, among
other ailments. It was once considered a cure all. It
has a very long history of use and appears to
be quite safe overall. Another helpful herb. I got to
(52:06):
say after doing this, I certainly would not hesitate in
offering this herb. I have been after I did our
deep dive into Valerian root. I don't know how many
episodes ago I have suggested that to a few patients
and this I don't have any problem suggesting this for depression,
anxiety and insomnia, so I think this is another useful verb.
(52:29):
I don't know how strong a nerb it is, but
it did seem to have some pretty good effects on
depression anxiety. And if you have effects on depression anxiety,
often you will help insomnia as well. So I think
this is great for me as an acupunctual, as nervalist.
I probably wouldn't use it for gas from tesla issues
because that kind of is where we live in Chinese medicine,
(52:50):
so I probably stick to my Chinese medicine for that,
but for depression anxiety, this certainly might become part of
my toolkit. I think it's a really interesting nerb. In
our next episode, we will be exploring another interesting Chinese herb,
Yeo bangzi or Rcti fruituso Bangzha Rcti fruitus or great
(53:14):
burdock fruit. This herb is in the Chinese medical subcategory
of cool acrid herbs that release the exterior under the
category of release the exterior herbs. It is helpful for
certain types of colds, sore throats and as a seed
can help constipation. And as usual, we will be exploring
(53:35):
something a little different. Please join us for this intriguing episode.
See you in two weeks. Thank you very much for
joining us today. If you like this podcast, would you
do us a humongous favor, give us a five star
rating in your favorite podcast app or subscribe. We'd love
for you to subscribe, and we thank you for even
(53:56):
considering doing that. And remember you can get in education
units and National Certification Commission of avcupunction Orial Medicine professional
development activities at www dot Integrative Medicinecouncil dot org. That's
Integrative Medicine Council c o u n Cil dot org.
Don't forget that twenty percent off with the code s
(54:19):
H two zero o f F sperbs herbs sh twenty
off and you can always get in touch with me
at doctor Greg at sperbserbs dot com or at our
website www dot sperbserbs dot com. That's s p e
r B s h e r b s dot com.
We Americans have a silent h there which I know
(54:41):
very well because I taught this in Australia and they
would make fun of me. So sperbs and says we
say sperbserbs, but they would say sperbs heerbs. So there
we go. Thank you very much, and as usual have
quite the bibliography. Thank you very much. Hope to see
(55:02):
against sooner. The preceding was presented by doctor Greg S. Ferber.
We would like to thank Janelle S. Fowler's support and
everybody else who contributed to this program. Joe Roger Campbell
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