EP 12 - Be My Lemon Balm

Lemon balm belongs to the mint family and is also known by the names of balm, common balm, garden balm, or balm mint. This fragrant herb is native to a range spanning southern Europe to Central Asia, but today it can be found in home gardens around the world. The leaves are used as a tea ingredient and the leaf essential oil is also used in aromatherapy. *** Have you ever wondered where your food comes from? Not just where it’s grown today, but where it originally popped up in the world? Have you ever bit into a delicious, red juicy ripe fruit and wondered, hey – why is it this color? What’s responsible for this amazing flavor? Or – is this good for my health? Could it even be medicinal? "Foodie Pharmacology" is a food podcast built for the food curious, the flavor connoisseurs, chefs, science geeks, foodies and adventurous taste experimenters out in the world! So, join me on this adventure through history, medicine, cuisine and molecules as we explore the amazing pharmacology of our foods. Dr. Cassandra Quave is an American ethnobotanist, herbarium curator, and assistant professor at Emory University. Her research focuses on analyzing wild plants used in traditional cultures for food and medicine to combat some of the greatest challenges we face today in medicine: antibiotic resistant infections and cancer.