Mexican Oregano: A Different Plant With a Familiar Flavor

Mexican oregano tastes like oregano turned up a notch, but botanically it isn’t oregano at all. It’s the dried leaf of Lippia graveolens, a shrub in the verbena family, Verbenaceae, while Mediterranean oregano is Origanum vulgare from the mint family. They taste alike because both are rich in the same two phenols, thymol and carvacrol, just in different proportions.¹² It’s an important spice in Mexico and Central America, and it shows up in the chile sauces of New Mexico.

At a glance

What it is

The plant is a shrub native to tropical and subtropical America; PROSEA puts its range from the southern United States to Nicaragua.¹ Kunth published the name Lippia graveolens, and Kew now files it as a synonym of the broader species Lippia origanoides, so you’ll see both names in the literature.³⁴

Its family tie is to lemon verbena, Aloysia citrodora, which Kew also places in Verbenaceae. “Oregano” has never been a botanical label: a 2020 review notes that the name gets used for plants in several genera, Lippia among them.²

Wild stands are under pressure. PROSEA reports that natural populations in Mexico are overharvested, and that in the southern United States the plant is grown as an annual.¹ A 2021 review describes L. graveolens as a traditional crop “primarily cultivated for essential oil recovery.”⁵

Flavor and aroma

Mexican oregano tastes recognizably of oregano, only louder: more resinous and peppery, with a citrusy edge Mediterranean oregano doesn’t have. PROSEA keeps it simpler: stronger, sharper and more pungent than Origanum.¹

The compounds, side by side

In short, in the figures we found, Mexican oregano leans on thymol and Mediterranean oregano usually leans on carvacrol. These ranges come from different studies and different samples, so don’t read them as a head-to-head test.

How it is used

It’s an important spice in Mexico and Central America. In US extension recipes it shows up in chile cooking:

• New Mexico red chile sauce. NMSU Extension’s red chile sauce lists crushed dried Mexican oregano as optional and adds it near the end: “Add oregano and simmer another 5–7 minutes.”⁶ See best spices for chili for more chili recipes that use it.
• White chicken chili. A University of Tennessee Extension recipe card calls for 2 teaspoons of Mexican oregano.⁷
• Industry. The essential oil has largely replaced the herb itself in the food industry, PROSEA notes.¹

It also goes into pozole, menudo, bean dishes, salsas and adobos, often with cumin and dried chiles, and lots of cooks rub the dried leaves between their palms over the pot to wake up the oil. Those are kitchen traditions, though; we didn’t find a source we could open that documents specific dishes.

Buying and quality

Buy whole or coarsely crumbled leaves. They’re easier to judge than powder: look for green, not brown, and a sharp, resinous smell when you rub them. Check the label for the word Mexican or the name Lippia, since the two herbs don’t taste the same.

Oregano in general is a fraud target. In an EU-wide control plan, 48% of samples sold as oregano were suspected of adulteration, mostly with olive leaves.⁸ That survey looked at oregano on the EU market and didn’t report Mexican oregano separately.

Production

PROSEA cites an estimate that Mexico produced about 3,000 tonnes of oregano a year in the early 1990s, with about 2,000 tonnes going to the United States.¹ That’s an estimate quoted in a reference work, it’s more than 30 years old, and we found no recent government figure we could open.

Storage

We couldn’t find a published shelf life for dried Mexican oregano from a regulator or extension service. Keep it in an airtight jar away from heat and light, and go by smell. For general tips see how to dry oregano and can you freeze oregano.

Health and safety

The 2021 review lists antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antifungal and other activities for compounds from L. graveolens.⁵ Those are lab findings on extracts and isolated compounds. They don’t show that eating the herb treats or prevents any disease. We found no NIH fact sheet or human trial for Mexican oregano, and we couldn’t trace popular claims that it helps prevent Alzheimer’s disease, obesity or osteoporosis to any human evidence.

USDA’s FoodData Central has no separate entry for Mexican oregano, so there’s no way to check vitamin and mineral claims for it. The figures listed for “oregano” are for Origanum.

Substitutes and comparisons

Mediterranean oregano is the usual stand-in. It’s milder, so some cooks use a little more. See Mexican oregano substitutes and Mexican oregano vs. oregano.

Related: oregano substitutes, marjoram, epazote, chili powder, fresh vs. dried oregano and too much oregano.