Origins: Rich woods, thickets, bottomlands, and stream banks.

Uses: This herb is described as being a rubefacient, stimulant and carminative. The U. S. Dispensatory lists it as being anthelmintic. This plant is a commercial source of the drug Thymol, which is of value as an antiseptic and flavor.

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Bee balms contain the active antiseptic ingredient thymol, and the plants were used to make antiseptic wash for cutaneous and oral inflammation. M. fistulosa (wild bergamot) is taller and has lavender colored flowers. There are many cultivars of M. didyma (bergamot, Oswego tea, scarlet bee balm) and these plants generally are shorter and have red, pink, or purple flowers. Bee balm plants are not the source of oil of bergamot, which actually comes from an Asian citrus tree now largely cultivated in Italy.
 
Part used::
Aerial parts

Origin:
America

1) A guide to medicinal plants of  Appalachia/ Krochmal, Arnold; Walter, Russel S.; Doughty, Richard M.: USA: U.S.D.A Forest Service:,1959

2) Hull, Kathleen; Photog. Hull, Meredith /Indiana Medical History Museum: Guide to the Medicinal Plant Garden./ USA: Indiana Medical History Museum. 2010. -- p. 58.