Lemon Balm Extract, 300mg, Standardized

Description

Lemon balm extract at 300 mg a serving, standardised to rosmarinic acid, 60 servings, about 48 cents each. The plant is Melissa officinalis, a mint family perennial that grows like a weed in temperate gardens, and the leaf is what gets extracted. What separates a lemon balm extract from the loose leaf and the tea bags is a single printed number: the rosmarinic acid percentage, which neither of those formats ever states.

Label figures

Why the marker on a lemon balm extract matters

Rosmarinic acid is the compound the research on this plant is calibrated against, and its content in dried leaf swings with harvest, drying and storage. A tea bag cannot tell you how much is in the cup. An extract with a stated percentage can, which means 300 mg of a known material rather than 300 mg of something.

Extract ratio, plant part and marker percentage are the three figures that make any botanical comparable, and the herbals page works through all three. A milligram number standing alone, without those, is close to decoration.

What the trials used

Human studies of standardised Melissa officinalis preparations have generally administered 300 to 600 mg a day over two to six weeks, with endpoints including anxiety rating scales, sleep questionnaires and cognitive task performance. Some of the acute work used single doses measured against mood scales a few hours later. Those are the amounts administered and the instruments read. Neither is a claim about this bottle.

Extract against leaf, in cost

Loose leaf is cheap and pleasant and unquantified. An extract costs more per gram of plant and gives you a number. Plenty of people buy both, since a mug of tea in the evening is doing something a capsule is not, and we would rather say that than pretend a capsule replaces a ritual.

What a lemon balm extract is usually combined with

Valerian is the common partner, and the pairing appears across the European sleep literature at fixed ratios. Blends are easier to sell than single extracts, because one marker assay covers the headline and the individual weights disappear into a total. Every blend on this site lists each plant with its own milligrams instead.

If you want that pairing, the valerian and passionflower bottle states both weights. If you want to know what a lemon balm extract does on its own, a single plant at a stated percentage is the only way to find out.

Dried leaf, essential oil and extract

Three different articles from one plant. The essential oil is steam distilled and sold by the drop, with a composition that has little in common with a water extract. Dried leaf is the whole thing, unconcentrated. A lemon balm extract sits between them, concentrated against a water soluble marker.

Rosmarinic acid is water soluble, which is why a hydroalcoholic extract can be standardised to it. An essential oil would be standardised to citral and citronellal instead, a different measurement that does not convert into this one.

Growing conditions, and why they show up in the assay

Melissa grown in full sun measures differently from shade grown material, and leaf harvested before flowering differs from leaf taken after it. None of that is visible in a milled powder, which is why the assay for your lot is printed rather than a figure carried over from a supplier brochure.

Reference reading

The NCCIH herbs at a glance series keeps short government summaries of what has and has not been studied for individual plants, free of charge and with nothing for sale. It is the sanest first stop for any botanical on this site.

Testing and identity

Mint family leaf is easy to adulterate with a cheaper relative, so species identity is confirmed on every lot of lemon balm extract alongside the rosmarinic acid assay, with heavy metals, pesticides and microbials screened as well. Off identity or under strength lots are withdrawn and their reports stay published. The rest of the night time shelf is on the sleep and calm page, and your certificate is linked above.