Spearmint

Q: What is the difference between spearmint and peppermint?

Spearmint (Mentha spicata) and peppermint (Mentha × piperita) are different mints with different chemistry. Spearmint is high in carvone and very low in menthol, giving it a sweeter, gentler flavor, while peppermint is rich in menthol and tastes sharply cooling. Because research is often species-specific, findings about peppermint should not be assumed to apply to spearmint, and vice versa.

Spearmint is an aromatic mint (Mentha spicata) used as a culinary herb and tea, traditionally for digestion and studied more recently for antioxidant and hormonal effects.

Last reviewed: June 17, 2026

Overview

Spearmint (Mentha spicata) is an aromatic perennial herb in the mint family, widely grown as a culinary flavoring and brewed as a caffeine-free herbal tea. Its bright, sweet, distinctly "minty" flavor — softer and less sharply cooling than peppermint — makes it a familiar ingredient in cooking, confectionery, oral-care products, and beverages across many cultures. As an herbal preparation, spearmint is most commonly encountered as a leaf tea or infusion, and it has a long folk association with soothing digestion and freshening the breath.

In recent years spearmint has drawn research attention beyond its culinary role, including small human studies on hormonal markers and laboratory work on its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds. As with most herbs, the gap between traditional reputation, preliminary research, and confident health claims is wide, and popular wellness coverage tends to overstate what the evidence currently supports. This page is educational. It describes what spearmint is, how it has been used, and what research has examined, without recommending it for any health condition.

What it is

Spearmint is a leafy green herb with characteristically wrinkled, spear-shaped leaves — the source of its common name. Chemically, what most distinguishes spearmint from its close relative peppermint is its essential-oil profile: spearmint oil is dominated by carvone and limonene and contains very little menthol, whereas peppermint (Mentha × piperita, a hybrid of spearmint and watermint) is rich in menthol and menthone. This difference explains why spearmint tastes sweeter and feels less intensely cooling than peppermint, and it matters because much of the research on "mint" is specific to one species and should not be assumed to apply to the other.

Spearmint is encountered in several forms that represent different exposures. The fresh or dried leaf, used in cooking and brewed as tea, is the mildest and most common. Spearmint essential oil is a far more concentrated product, used in flavoring, aromatherapy, and oral-care formulations, and it is not interchangeable with the leaf or tea. Standardized leaf extracts also appear in supplements and in research settings. Beyond carvone and limonene, spearmint leaves contain polyphenols such as rosmarinic acid, along with flavonoids, which are the compounds most often credited with the plant's measured antioxidant activity in laboratory testing.

Traditional use (educational)

Spearmint has a long history in the foodways and folk practices of the Mediterranean, the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. In many of these regions it is a kitchen staple — central to dishes, sauces, and especially teas, such as the sweetened spearmint tea traditional across the Maghreb. Within various traditional frameworks, spearmint leaf preparations were associated with easing digestive discomfort, settling the stomach, and relieving sensations now described as indigestion or bloating, and the herb was also valued simply for its pleasant aroma and breath-freshening quality.

In traditional Iranian and broader Middle Eastern medicine, spearmint leaves and aerial parts were used for complaints involving the stomach and digestion, including flatulence. These applications reflect generations of cultural familiarity with the plant as a gentle, everyday herb rather than outcomes validated by modern clinical study. The carminative reputation — the idea that mint helps relieve gas and digestive tension — is shared across the mint family and is one of the most enduring traditional associations attached to spearmint specifically.

What research says

The research on spearmint spans several tiers of evidence, and it is important to keep them distinct. In laboratory studies and cell-culture models, spearmint extracts and their polyphenols — particularly rosmarinic acid — show antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory activity. In animal studies, including rodent models of inflammatory bowel injury, spearmint phenolic extracts have been reported to reduce markers of inflammation and tissue damage. These findings describe biological activity under controlled conditions and do not establish that drinking spearmint tea produces comparable effects in people.

The most discussed human research concerns spearmint's apparent anti-androgen effect. A small randomized controlled trial published in Phytotherapy Research reported that spearmint herbal tea was associated with reductions in free and total testosterone over a 30-day period in women with polycystic ovarian syndrome, alongside changes in some related hormones. An earlier study in women with hirsutism reported similar hormonal shifts. These are intriguing but preliminary results: the trials were small, short, and used self-reported as well as objective measures, and notably the objective hirsutism scores did not change meaningfully over the brief study windows. Spearmint extract has also been examined in small human trials for cognitive measures such as working memory, again with preliminary findings.

The limitations across this literature are significant. Human trials are few, small, and short in duration, and they often use concentrated teas or standardized extracts rather than casual culinary use. Robust, large, long-term human evidence is lacking for essentially all of the health-related claims attached to spearmint, and the hormonal findings in particular need replication in larger and longer studies before any firm conclusions could be drawn. The digestive reputation, despite being the oldest and most widespread traditional use, has comparatively little dedicated clinical study specific to spearmint as opposed to peppermint. The reasonable summary is that spearmint is a pleasant, generally safe culinary herb with some preliminary research signals and a thin base of high-quality human evidence.

Safety & interactions

Spearmint consumed as a culinary herb or as ordinary tea is widely regarded as safe and well tolerated for most people. Reported issues are uncommon and tend to be mild, such as allergic or contact reactions in sensitive individuals. Unlike peppermint, spearmint is low in menthol, so some of the menthol-related cautions associated with peppermint — for example concerns about menthol exposure in young children — are less directly relevant, though concentrated spearmint products still warrant care.

The interactions that have been raised relate mainly to the hormonal signals seen in small studies: because spearmint tea has been associated with lower testosterone in limited research, some sources suggest caution for people with hormone-sensitive conditions or those taking hormonal therapies, framed as a theoretical consideration rather than an established interaction. Concentrated spearmint essential oil is a different matter from the leaf or tea — it is potent, intended for topical or aromatic use under appropriate guidance, and is not meant to be consumed in the casual way tea is. As with many herbs, large amounts of strong infusions or extracts move beyond the well-characterized territory of ordinary culinary and beverage use.

Who should be cautious

People with hormone-sensitive conditions, or those taking hormonal medications or fertility treatments, may wish to discuss regular consumption of strong spearmint tea or spearmint extracts with a clinician, given the preliminary anti-androgen findings. Pregnant and breastfeeding individuals are commonly advised to keep spearmint to normal culinary and occasional-tea amounts and to be cautious with concentrated teas, extracts, or essential oil, since safety data for those concentrated forms in pregnancy is limited.

Individuals with known allergies to plants in the mint family should approach spearmint with the same caution they would apply to related herbs. People who experience reflux symptoms sometimes find that mints in general can be a factor, so those managing nausea or heartburn may want to notice their own response rather than assume a soothing effect. As with all of these cautions, the relevant distinction is between ordinary food-level use, which has a long safe record, and concentrated supplemental or essential-oil forms, which are less well studied.

Quality & sourcing considerations

For spearmint as a culinary herb and tea, quality considerations center on freshness, proper drying, and storage. Dried spearmint leaf loses aroma and flavor over time as its volatile oils dissipate, so airtight storage away from heat and light helps preserve quality. Because mints are sometimes confused or blended, products labeled simply "mint" may be spearmint, peppermint, or a mixture; for anyone seeking spearmint specifically, labeling that names Mentha spicata offers more certainty than generic "mint" descriptions.

For supplements and essential oils, variability is greater. Essential-oil composition can differ with cultivar, growing conditions, and distillation, and adulteration or mislabeling has been documented in the broader essential-oil market, so sourcing from reputable suppliers and looking for clear botanical identification matters. Standardized leaf extracts used in supplements vary in concentration and in how their active compounds are characterized. Third-party testing and transparent labeling are reasonable signals to look for, while keeping in mind that such testing speaks to product identity and purity rather than to any health outcome. As with other aromatic herbs, contamination with pesticides or heavy metals is a general consideration that responsible suppliers address through testing.

FAQs

What is the difference between spearmint and peppermint?
Spearmint (Mentha spicata) and peppermint (Mentha × piperita) are different mints with different chemistry. Spearmint is high in carvone and very low in menthol, giving it a sweeter, gentler flavor, while peppermint is rich in menthol and tastes sharply cooling. Because research is often species-specific, findings about peppermint should not be assumed to apply to spearmint, and vice versa.

Is spearmint tea the same as spearmint essential oil?
No. Spearmint tea is a mild infusion of the leaf, while spearmint essential oil is a highly concentrated extract intended for flavoring, aromatic, or topical use under appropriate guidance. The two are very different exposures, and the casual way tea is consumed is not appropriate for the essential oil.

Why is spearmint studied for hormones?
Small human trials, mainly in women with polycystic ovarian syndrome or hirsutism, have reported that spearmint tea was associated with lower testosterone over short periods. These findings are preliminary, come from small and brief studies, and need replication in larger, longer trials before any firm conclusion could be reached. They are a research signal, not established fact.

Can spearmint help with digestion?
Spearmint has a long traditional reputation as a settling, carminative herb used for digestive discomfort, and that association is one of its oldest culinary and folk uses. Dedicated high-quality clinical evidence specific to spearmint for digestion is limited, however, with much of the mint research focused on peppermint. Individual responses vary.

Is spearmint safe to drink regularly?
For most people, spearmint as a culinary herb and ordinary tea is considered safe and well tolerated. The main cautions involve concentrated extracts and essential oil, and the preliminary hormonal findings that lead some sources to suggest care for people with hormone-sensitive conditions. Anyone with specific health concerns or who is pregnant can reasonably discuss regular strong-tea use with a clinician.