Essence of an herb bringing energy for playboy, essentially (5)
I believe the answer is:
theme
'essence' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
I can't explain the remainder of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for theme that I've seen before include "Melody on which variations are constructed" , "Thread, melody" , "sort of tune" , "Signature tune" , "Topic; melody" .)