Bee Balm

Botanical Name: Monarda didyma L. · Monarda fistulosa L.

Family: Lamiaceae (Mint family)

Other Names: Oswego Tea · Scarlet Bee Balm · Red Bergamot (M. didyma) · Wild Bergamot (M. fistulosa) · Monarda

Parts Used: Leaves and flowering tops

Quick Look

Bee Balm is a native American mint with a spicy taste much like oregano and thyme. It is a warming, aromatic herb to reach for when a cold comes with chills and congestion, when digestion is gassy and crampy, or when the mouth or throat is sore. It also makes a famous tea.

Actions, Energetics & Taste

How It's Been Used

Colds, fever & congestion. Native peoples across North America used Bee Balm for colds, fevers and catarrh. The hot tea was drunk to bring on a sweat, and the steam from the boiled plant was breathed in to loosen congestion. It suits the cold that comes with chills.

Digestion. A long-standing remedy for gas, colic, nausea, vomiting and stomach cramps, among both Native peoples and early settlers.

Headache. The leaves were chewed, or the plant laid on warm as a poultice, to ease a headache.

Mouth & throat. The cooled tea is used as a rinse for sore gums and mouth, and Bee Balm honey is taken for a sore throat.

Skin, stings & wounds. Crushed leaves were put on bee stings, and poultices and washes were used for skin infections, pimples and eruptions. Herbalists today also use the tea wash or honey on minor burns and wounds.

Urinary. Old American physicians gave the warm tea for scanty urine and other urinary complaints.

Women's health. The warm tea was used to bring on delayed menstrual flow.

Yeast & infection. Herbalists today use it for yeast and other infections. Its oil is rich in thymol and carvacrol, which fight bacteria and fungi in laboratory studies, but human research is lacking.

How to Make & Take It

Preparations: Tea · Steam · Gargle · Wash · Honey · Tincture

• Tea: 1–2 teaspoons dried leaf and flower to a cup of boiling water. Cover and steep 5–15 minutes. Drink 2–3 cups a day, hot for a cold.
• Steam: Put 1–3 tablespoons of the herb in 4–6 cups of just-boiled water. Let it cool slightly, lean over it with a towel over your head, and breathe the steam.
• Gargle or wash: Use the cooled tea as a gargle, a mouth rinse or a skin wash.
• Honey: 1 part dried leaves and flowers to 4 parts honey. Take a spoonful for a sore throat.
• Tincture: 1:5 in 40% alcohol, ½ to ¾ teaspoon, three times a day.
• Food: Use the leaves as a seasoning like oregano, and scatter the flowers on salads.

Cautions

• Avoid medicinal amounts during pregnancy, because of its traditional use to bring on menstrual flow.
• Safety while nursing is not established. Talk with a knowledgeable herbalist or care provider first.
• The essential oil is strong. Old texts warn that it reddens the skin and can blister it, so don't use it undiluted.
• No drug interactions are documented, but the plant has been little studied.
• Honey should not be given to babies under one year.
• A high or lasting fever, trouble breathing, or a bladder infection with fever or back pain needs medical attention.

Know the Plant

Both Bee Balms are fragrant perennials, two to four feet tall, with square stems, opposite toothed leaves and shaggy round heads of tubular, two-lipped flowers in summer.

• Scarlet Bee Balm (M. didyma) has bright red flowers and dark green leaves. It grows in moist woods and along stream banks and is native from southeastern Canada through the eastern United States.
• Wild Bergamot (M. fistulosa) has lavender-pink flowers and gray-green leaves. It grows in open woods, prairies and roadsides across most of North America.

Two names cause confusion. The bergamot that flavors Earl Grey tea is a citrus fruit, not this plant. Horsemint (Monarda punctata) is a close relative that old American medicine used in the same ways.

A Little History

The genus was named by Linnaeus for Nicolás Monardes, a sixteenth-century Spanish physician and botanist. "Oswego tea" comes from the Native people of the Oswego area of New York, who brewed the leaves. American colonists took up the drink when they boycotted British tea after the Boston Tea Party of 1773. "Bee balm" comes from the folk use of crushed leaves on bee stings. King's American Dispensatory (1898) said the warm tea may be drunk freely.

Blue Vervain

Botanical Name: Verbena hastata L. (European Vervain, Verbena officinalis L., is used the same way)

Family: Verbenaceae (Verbena family)

Other Names: Swamp Verbena · Blue Verbena · Simpler's Joy · Vervain

Parts Used: Leaves and flowering tops. The old American physicians preferred the root.

Quick Look

Blue Vervain is a very bitter, cooling herb that relaxes a body wound tight. Reach for it for the driven person who pushes through on willpower and carries tension in the neck, shoulders and jaw. It is also an old American remedy for the start of colds and fevers and for a sluggish liver and digestion.

Actions, Energetics & Taste

How It's Been Used

Nerves & tension. This is its chief use today. It suits the person who is rigid more than fragile: driven, unable to rest, with a stiff neck, tight shoulders and a clenched jaw. The neck tends to let go first, and the mind follows. It is also used when low mood comes with that same tense, irritable, tightly wound picture.

Blue Vervain or Skullcap? Both are cooling herbs that relax the nerves. Think Skullcap for raw, frayed nerves that flinch at noise and light. Think Blue Vervain for the body that is wound tight and won't sit down.

Women's health. Used for premenstrual anger, tension and headaches. Older physicians gave the warm tea to bring on delayed menstrual flow, and European Vervain was given to nursing mothers to increase milk.

Colds & fevers. The warm tea was taken at the start of a cold or fever to bring on a sweat, and it was a remedy for the recurring fevers once common in America.

Digestion & liver. A bitter tonic for poor appetite and weakness during recovery from illness. It was used to open the liver and gall ducts, for jaundice, and for worms.

Lungs. Used as an expectorant for coughs.

Headache & pain. Taken as tea for headaches, and laid on as a poultice for headache, nerve pain and rheumatism.

Skin, mouth & wounds. A poultice was used on bruises, and washes on ulcers, cuts and acne. The strong tea is a rinse for sore gums; one human trial found a vervain preparation improved gum inflammation.

How to Make & Take It

Preparations: Tea · Tincture · Decoction · Gargle · Wash

• Tea: 1 teaspoon dried herb to a cup of boiling water. Cover and steep 10–15 minutes. Up to 3 cups a day, hot for a cold. It is very bitter.
• Tincture: 1:5 in 50–60% alcohol. Start with 5–10 drops, three times a day. Raise it only if needed, to ¼ to ½ teaspoon at most, up to four times a day.
• To settle the stomach: take it with a little ginger, fennel or peppermint.
• Gargle or wash: simmer 2 teaspoons of herb in a cup of water for 15–20 minutes, cool, and use this decoction as a gargle, a mouth rinse or a skin wash.
• An old American method: ¼ to ½ cup of the root tea, three or four times a day.

Cautions

• More is not better. Large doses cause nausea and vomiting, so keep doses small.
• Avoid during pregnancy, because of its traditional use to bring on menstrual flow.
• Sources disagree about its use while nursing; safety is not established. Talk with a knowledgeable herbalist or care provider first.
• It may lower blood pressure slightly. Use care with low blood pressure, blood pressure medicine or sedatives.
• The tea may reduce iron absorption, so take it apart from iron.
• Low mood that lasts, severe headaches, or a high fever needs medical attention.

Know the Plant

Blue Vervain is a native wildflower, two to five feet tall, that lives two or more years. It has square, hairy stems, pairs of lance-shaped toothed leaves, and slender spikes of small purplish-blue flowers in mid to late summer. It grows in moist meadows, ditches, marshes and riversides across Canada and the United States.

European Vervain (V. officinalis) is a smaller plant with pale lilac flowers. It is native to the Old World and now grows wild in many states. White Vervain (V. urticifolia) is another relative; old American texts considered both milder than Blue Vervain.

Lemon verbena (Aloysia citrodora), the fragrant tea herb, is a different plant.

A Little History

Maud Grieve traced the name Vervain to the Celtic ferfaen, "to drive away a stone," from its old use for bladder stones, and wrote that the European plant had been recommended for more than thirty complaints. A medieval legend held that vervain was first found on Mount Calvary, which helped give it a reputation as a wound herb. In America, King's American Dispensatory (1898) described Blue Vervain as a tonic that in larger doses brings on vomiting and sweat and loosens the chest. William Cook wrote in 1869 that it "is nearly overlooked by the profession, but deserves decided attention."

Burdock

Botanical Name: Arctium lappa L.

Family: Asteraceae (Aster/Daisy family)

Other Names: Great Burdock · Lappa · Gobo · Beggar's Buttons · Clotbur · Bardana

Parts Used: Primarily the root. The seeds and leaves are also used.

Quick Look

Burdock is a slow, deep, gentle herb for chronic skin trouble. Reach for it for eczema, psoriasis, acne and boils, especially when digestion is sluggish too. It does little in a week and a good deal over a couple of months. It is also a food, eaten as a root vegetable.

Actions, Energetics & Taste

How It's Been Used

Skin. This is Burdock's chief use, old and new: eczema, psoriasis, acne, dandruff, recurring boils and styes, and skin that is slow to heal. The old American physicians used it for dry, scaly eruptions; herbalists today also reach for it in oily, cystic acne. It is one of the few herbs used for both dry skin and oily skin.

Burdock, Dandelion or Yellow Dock? All three are slow cleansing roots. Think Burdock when the skin is the main complaint. Think Dandelion root when digestion and bile need the push. Think Yellow Dock when constipation or low iron is part of the picture.

Digestion & liver. A mild bitter for poor appetite and sluggish digestion, and a gentle help to the bowels. It is used to support the liver's part in clearing wastes.

Urinary. Used to increase the flow of urine and flush the urinary tract. The seeds were given for an irritable, aching bladder and scalding urine, and the root for kidney stones.

Joints. An old remedy for rheumatism and gout. One small study found that Burdock root tea lowered markers of inflammation in older adults with knee arthritis.

Glands. Given for scrofula, the old name for chronically swollen glands.

Seeds. The seeds act like the root but more quickly. They are also a long-standing medicine in China.

Leaves. Bruised fresh leaves were laid on boils to draw them, and a leaf ointment was used on stubborn sores.

How to Make & Take It

Preparations: Decoction · Tincture · Poultice

• Decoction: 1–2 teaspoons dried root to a cup of water. Simmer, covered, 20 minutes. Drink 1 cup up to 3 times a day, with food.
• Tincture: 1:5 in 25–30% alcohol, ½ to ¾ teaspoon, three times a day.
• Food: Slice the fresh root into soups and stir-fries. The young stalks, peeled and boiled, were eaten like asparagus.
• Leaf poultice: Bruise a fresh leaf and lay it over a boil.
• An old method: boil 1 ounce of root in 1½ pints of water down to a pint, and take a small glassful three or four times a day.
• Give it time. For the skin, expect four to eight weeks before judging it.

Cautions

• Avoid it if you are allergic to the daisy family. Serious allergic reactions are rare but have been reported.
• Safety in pregnancy and nursing has not been established. Talk with a knowledgeable herbalist or care provider before using medicinal amounts.
• It may lower blood sugar, so those on diabetes medicine should watch their numbers. Don't combine it with water pills.
• It can loosen the stools or upset the stomach if the dose is too large or taken on an empty stomach.
• Buy the root from a trusted source and be certain of any plant you dig. Burdock tea contaminated with a poisonous root has caused poisoning.
• Urinary trouble with fever, pain or blood, or a skin condition that is spreading or infected, needs medical attention.

Know the Plant

Burdock is a biennial. The first year it makes a low clump of very large, heart-shaped leaves, gray and downy underneath. The second year it sends up a branched stalk three to four feet tall or more, with purple, thistle-like flower heads that ripen into hooked burs. The root is long and tapering, brown outside and white within, and the first-year root is the one used.

It is native to the temperate parts of Europe and Asia and is now a common weed of roadsides and waste ground across the United States and Canada. Common Burdock (Arctium minus) is a smaller relative, and European herbal standards accept its root as burdock root too.

A Little History

Maud Grieve traced Arctium to the Greek arktos, a bear, for the rough burs, and lappa to a word meaning "to seize." Medieval physicians called the plant Bardona and valued it for kidney stones, and Nicholas Culpeper recommended the seeds for sciatica. In America the root was listed in the United States Pharmacopoeia. William Cook (1869) praised its gentle action, and the Eclectic physician Harvey Felter called it "a potent but neglected alterative and diuretic."