Melissa Oil

#### Melissa Oil. Melissa oil or **Oil of Balm **enjoys the reputation of being probably one of the most frequently adulterated essential oils of the perfumery trade. **Melissa Oil**, cedrat oil, verbena oil, wintergreen oil, etc.,—these oils are almost never genuine distillates of the botanical. It might be appropriate to quote from the definition of essential oils adopted by the Geneva Congress for the suppression of frauds: "Essential oils are the exclusive product of the extraction of the aromatic principles contained in the substances of vegetable origin of which they bear the name". See also **Essential**** ****Oil**** **in Part One of this book. **Melissa**** ****Officinalis**** **is a small plant of the genus labiatae, and it has been known for hundreds, probably thousands of years in central and southern Europe. The local name for the plant in many countries is "heart's delight", and infusions of the dried herb were supposed to cure heart diseases, melancolia, etc. Perfumers will no doubt recall a French perfume of the late 1930's, put out by Nina Ricci and named "Cur-Joie", which means "heart's delight". This perfume certainly had a melissa-like, fresh topnote and lightness of floral fragrance. The herb is distilled in the south of France, Germany, and in Italy and Spain only rarely. However, the total production of genuine melissa oil is only a small fraction of the quantity commercially offered. The herb may be distilled with lemon oil, Spanish so-called verbena oil, lemon- grass oil, citronella oil, and various mixtures or fractions thereof. This process leads to commercial qualities of **Melissa Oil**, e.g. the "**Lemon-Melissa**", etc. It seems quite certain, however, that the extremely small yield of oil obtained by steam distillation of melissa herb is another and more acceptable reason (?) for—or explanation to— the conventional adulteration. The author has seen numerous melissa oils during the past 25 years, but he prefers to refrain from any further comments on the pure oil since he has no personal experience with the use of a guaranteed pure and genuine Melissa Oil. The plant itself has a very pleasant citral-citronellal type of fresh and sweet-herbaceous odor.