Abstract

 The botanical, geographical and herbicidal aspect of the species of the genus Melissa is presented. These species, especially Melissa officinalis , have been assigned a number of biological activities, such as antioxidant, antimicrobial, antitumor, antiviral, antiallergic, anti-inflammatory, and flatulence inhibiting, inhibiting germination and weed growth. The traditional pharmacological properties of lemon balm herb can be associated with the presence of bioactive phytochemicals such as terpenoids, alcohols, rosmarinic acid and phenolic antioxidants. A rich source of bioactive substances, of various Melissa species, can be considered as a promising candidate for the development of nutra-pharmaceuticals and bioherbicides. This review covers the botanical, geographical, nutritional, phytochemical and traditional medical aspects as well as the numerous biological activities of some commonly available Melissa sp. to prove their potential use in the food processing industry, the nutra-pharmaceutical and cosmetics-nutraceutical industry.

Keywords: Antioxidants; Antimicrobials; Antivirals; Antiallergics; Anti-Inflammatory; Bioherbicides; Nutra-Pharmaceuticals; Genus Melissa

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Citation

Citation: Barbara Sawicka., et al. “Botanical, Geographical, Herbicidal Aspects of Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis L.)". Acta Scientific Agriculture 4.5 (2020): 34-39.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Barbara Sawicka., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.