An important aromatherapy essential oil, Melissa, or Lemon Balm, is a potent antiviral with sedative, anti-depressant with calming benefits. Melissa is said to help with nervous and emotional disorders such as anxiety, restlessness, and melancholy. We carefully source our Melissa oil from artisan organic grown in France. Robert Tisserand writes that Melissa is “sedative, calming, antidepressant. It slows the respiration and pulse, lowers the blood pressure, and has an antispasmodic effect on smooth muscle.”
Melissa officinalis is a perennial herb yielding less than 0.10 of 1% essential oil. The amount of fresh leaves required to produce 1 Kilogram of this precious oil is between 6 and 7 tons. As a result, true Melissa oil is rare and one of the most commonly adulterated oils. Most all Melissa Oil in the commercial market is nothing more than a mix of Lemongrass and Citronella. Shockingly, we've even noticed some that publicly display the GCMS data that clearly indicates this. The key markers to look for when comparing the GCMS of various sources is the presence of elevated Citral. True "authentic Melissa" should have (no matter the batch) highest percentages of Geranial, Neral, and Beta-caryophyllene. Please exercise caution, Melissa essential oil with “too good to be true” pricing is likely to be adulterated and will lack the aroma-therapeutic properties of true Melissa oil.
Part of our quality control involves GC/MS testing to validate purity and legitimate percentages of compounds. The main compounds in this Melissa essential oil from France are Geranial, Neral, and Beta-caryophyllene, as true Melissa oil should have.
Melissa is the most expensive herbal essential oil, is very potent and should therefore be used sparingly…a little goes a long way!
Batch specific GC/MS analysis for this essential oil is available by clicking on the green tab above.