10kg of Melissa officinalis leaves grown on the estate pictured above are distilled to produce just one 5 ml bottle of our precious #80 Melissa essential oil. It is the finest pure Melissa oil we have ever known.

It is no surprise that much of the Melissa oil available is a result of conventional adulteration. Steffen Arctander warns, "The herb may be distilled with Lemon oil, Spanish so-called Verbena oil, Lemongrass oil, Citronella oil and various mixtures thereof. This process leads to commercial quantities of Melissa oil." He posits that the extremely small yield obtained by the steam distillation explains why he has not seen, throughout his 25 years of research, a genuine and authentic specimen.

The healing properties of Melissa have been well known since the Middle Ages. Early wisdom includes a recommendation by Saint Hildegard von Bingen: "Melissa is warm and a person who eats it likes to laugh because its warmth touches the spleen and therefore the heart is pleased." While the historic wisdom may seem unnecessary to someone steeped in modern rationalism, Melissa has been the subject of much western research to explain various pharmacological properties within its oil and water soluble components. Noteworthy results demonstrate the ability of Melissa to counteract herpes virus episodes.

There is evidence to suggest that Melissa officinalis enhances cholinergic transmission, based on the fact that it binds to both nicotinic and muscarinic acetylcholine receptors within the central nervous system (Perry et al., 1996; Wake et al., 2000). Much of its calming and strengthening effect to the nervous system could be mediated that way.  The most reliable action of true Melissa is its calming effects (Kennedy et al., 2003).