I ended up on this thread recently - still don't remember how but the folklore tale about John Hussey of Sydenham made me chuckle (I had to search "Sydenham" on the forums to find the thread again).
Also I thought I would mention my experience with lemon balm and peppermint (both are of the mint family). Both I have found to be potent aphrodisiacs, increasing desire rather quickly after ingestion. I haven't studied herbal medicine or anything, but given that I also experienced a similar result with fennel - kind of like a heat beneath the belly button which both leads to improved digestion and the aforementioned increase in desire - I am led to believe that there is some kind of centre near the belly button which is "activated" by certain herbs. Indeed, other herbs activate intellect rather than stomach, for example, which may be due to their resonance with an "intellect centre" rather higher up in the body?
Personally, I have not experienced any increase in intellect whatsoever through lemon balm. Not even an increased intellectual subtlety, as I did with ginkgo biloba. So, in my opinion, lemon balm isn't really as great as those of the past have made it seem. It definitely seems to have built itself an illustrious history, what with Carmelite water and Paracelsus calling it the "elixir of life" or something, but it just didn't live up to this title in my experience. Actually, it just seems to be a weaker version of peppermint.
So please, do yourself a favour and ignore the forms. I know it makes lemon balm more romantic to know that it was viewed so highly by Paracelsus and used by Carmelite monks in the middle ages, but if something doesn't work for you, no amount of propaganda will ever allow you to benefit from it. So listen to the alchemists and learn from nature (part of which is your own self and how you react to herbs) and ignore the forms.
Edit: The above is slightly one-sided. To its credit, lemon balm does certainly seem to remove anger as one of the old herbalists claims in his book. Also, as with peppermint, the aphrodisiac effect is only at the beginning, seemingly related with its digestive benefits. This soon disappears and you are left with the "true" effect of the herb, which lasts longer. So for example, peppermint will be heating at first then very cool. I haven't experienced the same effect with lemon balm: it is slightly heating at first, yes, but the effect seems to remain afterwards as well. In fact, the effect of the herb is so subtle that I am tempted to call it Temperance. So maybe those folklore tales about John Hussey and others have some truth in them. Perhaps even "elixir of life" is meant with respect to this overall temperance which is seems to affect in the body.
Anyway, the reason for the edit is that, as usual (unfortunately) I seem to have been a bit hasty with my initial judgement. I haven't given lemon balm enough time to be able to judge so decisively, especially given its extremely subtle, almost unnoticeable effect (at least to me). I may update this post once I have more experience with this herb.
