Wild Bergamot Hydrosol and Oil

 

 

 for anti-anxiety(stress/anxiety),
analgesic (general pain relief/back pain/musclesoreness/injury),

anti-inflammatory (arthritis/joint pain/migraines/sports injuries),
anti-infectious (cold/flu/ear ache); and anti-spasmodic (muscle spasms)Anti-infectious, antibacterial (large spectrum), antifungal, antiviral,
tonic. (general, neuro, uterine)

Respiratory: respiratory infections

Muscular/Skeletal: asthenia (debility)

Digestive: anorexia, flatulence, painful & sluggish digestion, liver
congestion, stimulates gall bladder, intestinal parasites; may aid peptic
ulcers.

Genito-Urinary/ Reproductive: urinary-genital infections

Nervous Brain/ Mind: debility, fatigue


Aromatherapy Uses:
Anti-infectious, antibacterial (large spectrum), antifungal, antiviral,
tonic. A powerful antibacterial, anti infectious oil with a sweet citrus
aroma. Activates liver and gall bladder and speeds digestion.

Essential Oil Blends With:
Lavender, lemon, lime, and geranium.

The Horsemint or Wild Bergamot essential oil contains 34 components of which the main ones are -pinene (3.5%), -pinene (2.9%), -terpinene (1.7%), p-cymene (32.5), an aliphatic aldehyde (6.3%),
sabinene hydrate (1.9%), -caryophyllene (1.1%), the methyl ether of carvacrol (5.5%), citronellyl acetate (1.6%), thymol (12.6%), and carvacrol (24.0%). The compounds were identified on the basis of their
mass-spectrometric characteristics and arithmetical retention indices.

 

Oil from this plant has also been used as a fixative in perfumes. Thymol, an antiseptic drug, can be extracted from the plant.

 

All-Union Scientific-Research Institute of Drugs, Moscow. Translated from Khimiya Prirodnykh Soedinenii,
Vol. 5, pp. 646-649, September-October, 1989.

Ethnobotanical Uses:

 

The Tewa Indians because of the flavor it imparted cooked Wild bergamot with meat.  The Iroquois used the bee balm in the making of a beverage.  The plant has a historically wide variety of medicinal uses.  The Ojibwe put a wad of chewed leaves of Mondarda Fistulosa into their nostrils to relieve headache. The tops of the horsemint were dried and used as a sternutatory for the relief of colds.  The Fistulosa leaves were placed in warm water baths for babies.  The Flambeau Ojibwe gathered and dried the whole plant, boiling it in a vessel to obtain the volatile oil to inhale to cure catarrh and bronchial affections.  The Menomini also used this plant as a remedy for catarrh, steeping the leaves and inflorescences in a tea.  The Meskwaki used this plant in combination with other plants to relieve colds.  The Hocak (Winnebago) used wild bergamot in their sweat bath and inhaled the fumes to cure colds. The Choctaw Indians gave it as a cathartic, for colds, and to promote perspiration.The Oswego Indians infused Monarda as a drink and it became a popular tea substitute in New England following the Boston Tea Party

 

    A decoction of boiled leaves was used as a cure for eruptions on the face.  The Cherokee made a warm poultice of the plant to relieve a headache.  The Teton Dakota boiled together the leaves and flowers as a cure for abdominal pains.  The Blackfoot made a tea from the blossoms and leaves to cure stomach pains.  They also applied boiled leaves to the pustules of acne.  The Tewa dried the plant and ground it into a powder that was rubbed over the head to cure headaches, over the body to cure fever, and as a remedy for sore eyes and colds.  Early white settlers used it as a diaphoretic and carminative, and occasionally employed it for the relief of flatulent colic, nausea and vomiting.  

Botanical History:

 

 

The name Monarda honors the Spanish medical botanist, Dr. Nicholas Monardes of Seville, who wrote his herbal on the flora of America in 1569 in his book JOYFUL NEWS OUT OF THE NEWE FOUNDE WORLDE. He may have called the herb "bergamot" because its leaf scent resembles that of the small, bitter Italian bergamot citrus orange, citrus aurantium bergamia, which produces the oil of bergamot used in aromatherapy, perfumes, and cosmetics. John Bartram of Philadelphia, was instrumental in introducing the plant into England. Bartram collected seeds near Oswego New York in 1743 and sent them to Peter Collinson. They first bloomed in Collinson's garden in 1745 and he named the plant "Oswego Tea" for its point of collection in America.Monarda is often over-looked as a culinary herb and a tisane (herbal tea). .

 

Botanical Information:

 

Mintleaf Beebalm Monarda fistulosa L. var. fistulosa (MINT FAMILY)Mintleaf beebalm is an erect, aromatic perennial 2-4 ft tall arising from a branched rhizome. The often-branched stem is square and usually and
pubescent. The opposite leaves are commonly deltoid-lanceolate, pubescent, and more or less serrate. Both leaves and flowers are dotted with glands which secrete volatile, aromatic oils. The inflorescence is a hemispheric
head with tubular pale lavender to rose-purple flowers with bilabiate corollas mixed with leafy bracts. The upper lip of the corolla is densely  at the summit. The fruit is composed of 4 nutlets. The aroma from dried leaves of this plant can be used to freshen closets, trunks, and other areas.

 

Native to North America. The brightly colored flowers attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Also known as Monarda and Bergamot, because of its similar aroma to this citrus.

 

 Mondarda Fistulosa Tea Leaf from www.wildamericanteas.com