Spice Comparisons · Comparison
Lemon Balm vs. Lemongrass: A Tender Mint-Family Leaf and a Fibrous Tropical Grass
Lemon balm and lemongrass both taste of lemon without the sourness, and for the same reason: each one’s oil is led by citral, a pair of compounds called geranial and neral.12 That’s about where the resemblance ends. Lemon balm is a soft-leaved herb in the mint family, tender enough to tear into a salad. Lemongrass is a tall tropical grass whose fibrous stalks usually get simmered and pulled out before serving, and the sources can’t even agree on where it first grew. That difference in the plant decides how you cook with each one.
Side by side
| Lemon balm | Lemongrass | |
|---|---|---|
| Species | Melissa officinalis L. | Cymbopogon citratus (DC.) Stapf |
| Family | Lamiaceae, the mint family | Poaceae, the grass family, which also includes corn and bamboo |
| The plant | Perennial herb up to 3 feet, hardy to Zone 5 | Tufted perennial grass with stems up to 2 m (occasionally 3 m); hardy only to Zone 8 |
| Native range | Mediterranean to Central Asia | Disputed; known only from cultivation (see below)32 |
| Part used | Leaves, fresh or dried; essential oil | Lower stalk and bulb for flavor; leaves for tea; essential oil |
| Main aroma compounds | Citral (geranial and neral) and citronellal1 | Citral (geranial and neral); myrcene, limonene and geraniol among the others2 |
| Oil content | 0.06% to 0.8% of the leaf (EMA)1 | 0.25% to 0.50% of the harvested herbage (PROSEA)2 |
| Typical uses | Salads, soups, sauces, stuffings, liqueurs, wine, herbal teas, fruit drinks | Southeast Asian curry pastes, sauces and fish dishes, teas and other drinks |
| US food status | On FDA’s GRAS lists as a spice and as an essential oil45 | Lemongrass oil on FDA’s GRAS list of essential oils5 |
| Flavor | Soft lemon over a green, faintly minty background | Rich, grassy lemon, with a tea-like edge |
| Price | No dated, sourced comparison found | No dated, sourced comparison found |
The two oil figures are measured differently, one as a share of the leaf and one as a distillation yield from harvested herbage, so they don’t tell you which plant is richer in oil.
Two different plants
Lemon balm is a perennial of the temperate zone. It grows up to 3 feet, is hardy to Zone 5, and spreads if you leave it alone. It isn’t a shrub.
Lemongrass is a perennial, tufted grass with lots of upright stems. It’s one of the few herbs in the grass family, Poaceae, the family that also includes corn and bamboo. It’s hardy only to Zone 8. Most of the flavor is in the fibrous stalks and the slight bulb at the base.
Where they come from. Lemon balm’s native range is the Mediterranean to Central Asia. Where lemongrass comes from is unsettled, and the sources disagree:
| Source | What it says about lemongrass |
|---|---|
| Kew, World Checklist native range | Southern India and Sri Lanka3 |
| Kew, species profile on the same page | Native to Indonesia, introduced and cultivated in most of the tropics3 |
| PROSEA | Known only from cultivation; exact origin unknown, Malesian origin most likely2 |
So “lemongrass comes from Southeast Asia” is one of several positions, not a settled fact.
Flavor and chemistry
Lemongrass tastes of rich lemon without the acidity, and its oil smells very strong, fresh-grassy, lemon-like and herbaceous or tea-like. Lemon balm smells softer, with a green, faintly minty background.
Citral is behind both. Figures vary by sample, so each one belongs to its own scope:
| Oil (scope) | Geranial | Neral | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lemongrass, general range for C. citratus oil | 40–62% | 25–38% | PROSEA2 |
| Lemongrass, one analysis (Rajeswara et al. 1996, as tabulated by PROSEA) | 53.6% | 36.1% | PROSEA2 |
| Lemongrass, Ethiopian highlands | Total citral about 14% | PROSEA2 | |
| Lemon balm, one Algerian sample (Algiers, May 2018) | 45.06% | 31.72% | Abdellatif et al.6 |
The lemon balm figure is a single sample from a different study, so the table doesn’t show that one oil carries more citral than the other. It shows that both are citral-led, and that some lemongrass oils are low in citral altogether. The Algerian lemon balm oil also had 6.42% citronellal,6 and the EMA puts β-caryophyllene and germacrene D at about 10% each of lemon balm oil.1
The differences that change a dish
Texture. This is the big one. Lemon balm’s leaves are tender enough to tear into salads. Lemongrass stalks are fibrous. They’re usually steeped in oil or stock and removed, though the tender center of young shoots can be chopped finely and eaten.
Heat. Lemongrass is built for simmering. It’s pounded with garlic and makrut lime leaf into Thai, Lao and Vietnamese curry pastes, and in Java its leaf sheaths go into spicy sauces and fish dishes. Lemon balm usually goes in raw or late. Long cooking leaves little of its scent, though we found no measurement of it.
Sweet uses. Both have them. Penn State’s lemon balm syrup, made by steeping six 4-inch sprigs in a boiling syrup of equal parts sugar and water for 30 minutes, goes into cocktails, seltzer, pound cake or fruit.7 Lemongrass is mostly savory, but not only: PROSEA notes it’s used in Java to make a popular sherbet.2 So the idea that lemongrass is too astringent for sweets comes down to taste, not a rule.
Dried forms. Outside Southeast Asia, many cooks rely on lemongrass powder and dried stalks. In America’s Test Kitchen’s tests, each recipe used half as much dried lemongrass as fresh.8 We couldn’t find a similar test of dried lemon balm.
Can one stand in for the other?
Only partly. They share a lemon scent but not a texture or a job. Our lemon balm substitute and lemongrass substitute pages each give a starting point, from opposite directions:
| Swap | Starting amount | Treatment |
|---|---|---|
| Lemongrass in place of 1 tablespoon fresh lemon balm, in tea | A 2- to 3-inch piece of fresh stalk, sliced; steep and taste | Method |
| Lemongrass in place of 1 tablespoon fresh lemon balm, in a soup or sauce | A 2- to 3-inch piece, bruised; simmer, taste and remove | Method |
| Lemon balm in place of 1 stalk of lemongrass | About 2 tablespoons fresh leaves, added near the end | Method |
Lemon balm won’t stand in for lemongrass in a curry paste, where the stalk adds body as well as scent, and lemongrass won’t stand in for lemon balm torn raw into a salad.
Health and safety
The calming reputation. The EMA’s herbal committee accepts lemon balm leaf as a traditional herbal medicine for mild stress and to aid sleep, based on long-standing use, and says the evidence isn’t enough to establish that it works.91 For lemongrass, Memorial Sloan Kettering reports that in clinical studies lemongrass tea didn’t lower anxiety or have a calming effect, and that human studies are limited.10 So the common claim that lemon balm has anti-anxiety powers lemongrass lacks overstates the case for lemon balm. Neither has been shown to treat anxiety.
Cautions. For lemon balm medicines, the EMA limits use to adults and children over 12, warns of possible drowsiness, and doesn’t recommend use in pregnancy or breastfeeding.91 Memorial Sloan Kettering lists dizziness, drowsiness, dry mouth and more frequent urination as possible side effects of taking lemongrass by mouth.10 Kew notes that lemongrass oil can cause contact dermatitis.3 These cautions are about medicinal use and the oil, not everyday cooking.
What isn’t known
- No study measures the two leaves’ citral content side by side.
- The sources disagree on lemongrass’s native range.
- We couldn’t find a test of how lemon balm holds up to cooking or drying.
- No dated, sourced price comparison.
Related
- Lemon balm and lemongrass, the full profiles
- Lemon balm substitutes and lemongrass substitutes
- Lemon balm vs. lemon verbena, lemon verbena vs. lemongrass and lemon balm vs. mint
- Cooking with lemongrass and lemongrass uses
Footnotes
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Assessment report on Melissa officinalis L., folium, European Medicines Agency. ema.europa.eu · Regulator ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6
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L.P.A. Oyen, Cymbopogon citratus, Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9
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Cymbopogon citratus (DC.) Stapf, Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. powo.science.kew.org · Reference work ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4
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21 CFR 182.10, US Food and Drug Administration. ecfr.gov · Regulator ↩
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21 CFR 182.20, US Food and Drug Administration. ecfr.gov · Regulator ↩ ↩2
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Abdellatif et al., “Minerals, Essential Oils, and Biological Properties of Melissa officinalis L.”, Plants, 2021. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov · Peer-reviewed ↩ ↩2
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Mandy L. Smith and Susan Marquesen, “Lemon-Scented Herbs in the Garden and the Kitchen”, Penn State Extension, 2025. extension.psu.edu · Reference work ↩
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“Dried vs. Fresh Lemongrass”, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩
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“Melissa leaf”, summary for the public, European Medicines Agency, 2014. ema.europa.eu · Regulator ↩ ↩2
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“Lemongrass”, About Herbs, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 2022. mskcc.org · Reference work ↩ ↩2
Also drawn on
- Melissa officinalis L., Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. powo.science.kew.org
- Lemon balm (Melissa Petruzzello), Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com
- Lemongrass, by Tony Hill, Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com
- Corn (Britannica Editors, updated 9 Sep 2026), Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com
- Bamboo (Britannica Editors, updated 18 Aug 2026), Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com