And thus, we have arrived at this month’s musings here in the Herbal Sensorium where not only do I liberate lemon balm from falsehood and take a deep dive into its kindly medicinal ways, but I take the opportunity to share about something called ‘clinical relevance’, why we need to dig deep and question when we hear lines in the sand drawn about herbs, and how only you can prevent herbal rumors.

Thank you all for sharing this time with me and helping me save lemon balm from the prison of a contradiction that it doesn't deserve. Here are the links I mentioned in this episode...

Evidence-based Practice Model

Sackett, D., Rosenberg, W., Gray, J., et al. (1996). Evidence based medicine: what it is and what it isn’t. British Medical Journal, 312, 71-72.

Hoffman, T., Bennett, S., & Del Mar, C. 2013. Evidence-based practice: across the health professions (2nd ed.). Chatswood, NSW: Elsevier.

The source of the lemon balm rumor...

April 1984 – In vitro - ether extraction of freeze-dried aqueous extracts and rat liver

August 1984 –In vitro – freeze-dried aqueous extracts on bovine TSH binding to human thyroid plasma membranes (rat testis and liver also)

May 1985 – In vitro – freeze-dried extracts and human thyroid membranes

October 2003 - Chinese hamster ovary cells (CHO) transfected with human TSH receptors (from abstract - unclear about type of extract used)

Awesome work from my herbal friends and colleagues...

jim mcdonald's Lindera course (both in person and online options available)

Camille Freeman's podcast episode debunking an herbal rumor about Vitex agnus-castus

Simon Mills Book The Essential Book of Herbal Medicine