Abstract:
Lemon balm is a herbal tea known for its therapeutic practice in soothing stomach cramps,
indigestion and nausea. One of its chemical components is rosmarinic acid, known for its anti-inflammatory
and antiviral activities in treating Herpes simplex. Despite the efforts, recovery and purification of rosmarinic
acid from Lemon balm in high yields has not been entirely successful. Here, we report the aqueous extraction of
rosmarinic acid from dried leaves of Lemon balm using Soxhlet distillation after optimizing the conditions with
various organic solvents. We have isolated rosmarinic acid under optimum process conditions and high yield
(96%) and elucidated its structure by NMR spectroscopy.
