Peppermint: The Menthol Mint, Its Oil, History and Uses

The sharp, cold-tasting mint you pair with chocolate isn’t a wild species at all. Peppermint, Mentha × piperita, is a natural hybrid of water mint and spearmint, mostly known as a cultivated plant. Its oil is mostly menthol and menthone, which give it a sharper, colder taste than spearmint.¹ One of the oldest specimens of the hybrid sits in the herbarium of the English botanist John Ray,² and in 2023 Idaho produced 40.3% of all US peppermint oil.³

At a glance

What peppermint is

Peppermint is a hybrid, not a wild species. Its parents are water mint and spearmint. It’s native from Europe to Central Asia but mostly known as a cultivated plant that occasionally goes wild. It’s grown particularly in Europe, Asia and North America, and black peppermint, also called English or Mitcham mint, is grown widely in the United States.

The plant has the square stems of the mint family and stalked, dark green leaves. For the wider genus and how the main mints differ, see mint and types of mint.

Flavor and aroma

Peppermint tastes sharp, sweet and intensely cool, with a slightly medicinal finish. Spearmint is softer and greener, and apple mint milder still. Peppermint oil consists principally of menthol and menthone, and Singh and Pandey’s review names the same two as the components peppermint oil is prized for.¹ We didn’t find a source we could open that explains how menthol makes things feel cold, so we won’t guess at the mechanism. We also found no source for the common explanation that the “pepper” in the name refers to menthol’s bite.

What’s in the oil

The European Pharmacopoeia sets composition ranges for peppermint oil, which EMA’s assessment reproduces. They’re limits for medicinal-grade oil, not measurements of any one sample:

Source: European Pharmacopoeia limits as quoted in the EMA assessment report.² For comparison with a single study, one peppermint oil tabulated in Singh and Pandey’s review (Clark and Menory, 1980) had 29–48% menthol and 20–31% menthone.¹ Spearmint’s oil is built on a different compound, carvone, which the Pharmacopoeia caps at 1% in peppermint oil.¹²

Origin and history

EMA’s assessment says the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans knew it as a food flavoring in antiquity, and that commercial cultivation began in England around 1750. One of the oldest specimens of the hybrid sits in the herbarium of the English botanist John Ray (1628–1705).² Pliny the Elder, writing about mint, praised its smell and noted that it was a common ingredient in Roman sauces. Mint plants were used for digestive complaints in ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt.⁶

Plenty of other stories about peppermint’s history couldn’t be traced to a source we could open, so we’ve left them out: Aristotle and Alexander the Great treating it as an aphrodisiac, 13th-century Icelandic pharmacopeias, steam distillation in American mint fields from 1846, and the industry’s move from Wayne County, New York, to Michigan.

Where it is grown now

In the United States, USDA statistics put Idaho first among peppermint oil states in 2022 and 2023. Idaho produced 1,132,000 pounds of oil from 12,300 acres in 2023, 40.3% of the US total.³ We found no statistical source for the widely repeated claim that the United States supplies more than 90% of the world’s peppermint, and no current world production figure.

How peppermint is used

The leaves are usually used fresh as a culinary herb, and peppermint oil is used for flavoring. The fresh leaves go into tea, cocktails and other drinks, fruit salads and desserts, and peppermint is a classic partner for chocolate.

Mint belongs with the delicate herbs best added near the end of cooking, since long heat costs flavor and aroma. LSU AgCenter’s general rule of thumb is that one tablespoon of finely cut fresh herbs equals one teaspoon of crumbled dried. That’s a guide, not a peppermint-specific measurement.⁷ Peppermint is strong and easy to overdo. If that happens, see too much mint. For more ideas, see mint uses and cooking with mint.

Buying and quality

For dried leaf, the only formal benchmark we found is the European Pharmacopoeia’s minimum of 12 ml of essential oil per kg of whole leaf (9 ml/kg for cut leaf).² For fresh peppermint, look for bright, unwilted leaves that smell strongly of menthol when you rub them.

Storage

We found no published shelf-life figure for fresh or dried peppermint from a regulator or extension service. For dried peppermint, use your nose: if a crushed pinch smells faint, it’s faded. For methods, see how to store mint, can you freeze mint and how to dry mint.

Health and safety

Most research on peppermint is about the oil, not the leaf. NCCIH says very little research has been done on peppermint leaf.⁶

Peppermint oil.

• NCCIH reports that enteric-coated peppermint oil capsules may improve irritable bowel syndrome symptoms in adults. A 2022 review of 10 studies with 1,030 participants found the oil better than placebo, and a 2021 American College of Gastroenterology guideline recommended it.⁶
• The EMA classes oral peppermint oil as a well-established-use medicine for minor spasms, flatulence and abdominal pain, especially in IBS, and oil applied to the forehead and temples for mild headache.⁸ Its uses for coughs and colds and for muscle pain and itching are traditional use only. For colds, the EMA says firm conclusions couldn’t be drawn.⁸
• NCCIH found no evidence that peppermint oil alone helps indigestion, and says it may make indigestion worse in some people.⁶
• Side effects of oral peppermint oil include heartburn, nausea, abdominal pain and dry mouth, and rarely allergic reactions.⁶ The EMA says its gut preparations shouldn’t be used by children under 8, and no peppermint oil preparation by children under 2.⁸ NCCIH warns against applying it to the face of infants or young children.⁶

Peppermint leaf. The EMA accepts peppermint leaf as a traditional herbal medicine for indigestion and flatulence in adults and children over 4, based on long-standing use, not clinical trials. Possible side effects include worse reflux and heartburn, and people with gallstones or other bile problems should be cautious.⁹ NCCIH says peppermint tea appears to be safe, though the long-term safety of large amounts of leaf is unknown, and that peppermint in amounts commonly found in food is likely safe in pregnancy.⁶

Pulegone and menthofuran. Both are minor oil compounds, and the Pharmacopoeia limits their levels (see the table above). In assessing medicinal use, the EMA accepted a combined intake of up to 37.5 mg per day for a 50 kg adult, based on liver and kidney toxicity in animal studies.²

Food use. FDA lists peppermint among spices and among essential oils generally recognized as safe for their intended use.⁴⁵ In the EU, dried peppermint and peppermint herbal infusions are capped at 400 µg/kg of pyrrolizidine alkaloids, plant toxins that can contaminate harvests.¹⁰

We’re not claiming peppermint treats or prevents any condition. We couldn’t find human evidence for claims that its perillyl alcohol fights breast or prostate cancer, that menthol opens up the airways, or that the oil protects against salmonella in food. We also couldn’t check claims that fresh peppermint is a good source of vitamins or minerals against USDA data during this review.

Substitutes and comparisons

Spearmint is the obvious swap, with a gentler, sweeter result. See peppermint substitutes and mint substitutes.

• Spearmint vs. peppermint
• Apple mint vs. peppermint
• Lemon balm vs. mint
• Profiles: mint, spearmint, watermint, chocolate mint