They Said What About My Favorite, Lemon Verbena? Part Three

The Verbena Oil in Concentration May Be the Issue in Photosensitivity!

Well, I had a light bulb moment the other day while reading about my favorite, lemon verbena.  BTW, we are going to take a break from this series of posts until after the first of the year.  I have too many other posts to do and not enough time!  Here are the last bits of information for now, including that light bulb moment.

Ruth D. Wrensch in The Essence of Herbs (1992) says that using a strong infusion fromm the [lemon verbena] leaves as an extract to substitute for the zest of a lemon."

Roger Phillips & Nicky Foy in Herbs (1992) says "This [lemon verbena tea] can be drunk three or four times a  day to relieve acidity, indigestion and flatulence or as a stimulant for lethargy or depression.  The smell of lemon verbena tea just makes me happy!

Barbara L. Collins and Floyd A. Giles in Landscaping Herbs (1998) says that outside lemon verbena is insect and disease resistant.   I would say disease resistant, but I have problems now with the stink bug.  So not totally insect resistant for me.

This was my light bulb moment from Arthur O. Tucker & Thomas DeBaggio, in The Encyclopedia of Herbs (2009) when they say (And I don't totally understand this, but I think this is where it led other authors to say that lemon verbena can bring issues with photo sensitivity of the skin.  "Oil of verbena was widely used in fragrance compositions, but the presence of up to more than 1 percent (Z) - and (E) - is ocitral (artifacts of steam distillation) produces photo sensitization of skin, so concretes and absolutes are preferred in perfumery."  If someone can explain this, I would appreciate it.

So it really wasn't an very old passage in a very old herbal, but more as the process of making perfume that they discovered the photo sensitivity of lemon verbena oil.  Fortunately, I don't have that sensitivity!

Hope you have enjoyed this series of posts.  I will do more in the coming year.  I need to do a few Christmas related posts before Christmas comes and goes!  It is cold and blustery here!  Hope you are having a great day wherever you may be.  Talk to you later!