Agastache (Anise Hyssop)
In short
Summary of findings for quick reference
Anise hyssop, Agastache foeniculum, is a tall prairie perennial of the mint family from northern North America, with leaves that smell of anise and liquorice. The Cheyenne, Chippewa, Cree and the peoples of the Missouri River used it as a mealtime tea, as a sweetener and as a medicine for coughs, colds and chest pain, as ethnographers recorded from 1905 onwards. It reached Europe only in modern times, which is why it sits at the regional tier of historical significance. Despite its names it is neither true hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis) nor a nettle.
Its character comes from its essential oil, which in the common anise type is mostly estragole, 88 to 93 percent in three samples analysed in 2021, the same molecule that flavours fennel, aniseed and tarragon. No study in people exists. In the laboratory the oil scavenges free radicals, stops several bacteria and the yeast Candida albicans and inhibits the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, and fruit flies fed the dried leaf lived up to a third longer. These are test-tube and insect results, not evidence for the tea. The East Asian Agastache rugosa, the huo xiang of Chinese medicine, is a different species.
The regulatory text that counts for anise hyssop is the EMA's public statement on estragole (EMA/HMPC/137212/2005 Rev 1 Corr 1, 12 May 2023). The plant has no monograph of its own and no authorised health claim. The EMA classes estragole as a naturally occurring genotoxic carcinogen and asks that exposure be kept as low as practically achievable, which is why safety is rated caution. An occasional cup of leaf tea or a handful of leaves in the kitchen is ordinary food use. The concentrated essential oil and large daily amounts over long periods are best avoided, above all in pregnancy, while breastfeeding and in young children.
Clinical evidence ↔ Historical significanceWe display two separate evidence categories: clinical evidence from modern trials and historical significance from documented healing tradition. Both are valuable, but they answer different questions.Read more
In every encyclopedia entry we evaluate two distinct categories of evidence. Clinical evidence as used in trials meets a narrower but scientifically essential bar. At the same time, the hundreds of thousands of plant species worldwide have only partially been captured and tested in modern studies.
Alongside the trial picture our researchers compile a comprehensive overview of where and since when a plant has been used across different traditions of natural medicine. When a plant has been used as a medicinal plant in many cultures across many generations, that historical significance deserves to be visible too.
Our position: a truly informative overview emerges only when both categories sit side by side. We communicate transparently what counts as what.
Overview
Anise hyssop, Agastache foeniculum, is a tall perennial of the mint family that grows wild on the prairies and plains of northern North America. Despite its names it is neither true hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis) nor a nettle. Its oval, toothed leaves smell sweetly of anise and liquorice, and from midsummer dense lavender spikes rise above them. The leaf with the flowering tops is used fresh or dried for tea and in the kitchen, and bees crowd the flowers, which is a large part of why so many gardens grow it.
Its tradition is North American. The Cheyenne, Chippewa, Cree and the peoples of the Missouri River drank the leaves as a mealtime tea, sweetened food with the plant and used it for coughs, colds and chest pain, as ethnographers recorded from 1905 onwards. There is no European record from antiquity or the Middle Ages, because the plant reached Europe only in modern times. Its essential oil is mostly estragole, which the EMA classes as a genotoxic carcinogen. The leaf belongs in the teapot and the kitchen in ordinary amounts, while the concentrated oil is not for internal use.
History
The medicine records come from the peoples of the northern Plains and the Great Lakes. In 1905 the ethnographer George Bird Grinnell wrote down how the Cheyenne used the plant he translated as elk mint. They boiled the leaves for a pleasant tea, and drank the infusion cold for pain in the chest, "as when the lungs are sore from much coughing", or for a weak heart. Later fieldwork among the Northern Cheyenne added a cold medicine, a steam bath with the leaves to bring on sweating, and powdered leaves rubbed on the body in high fever. The Chippewa (Ojibwe) turned to the root instead. In 1928 Frances Densmore recorded a root infusion for an internal cold with a tendency to pneumonia and for pain in the chest, along with a poultice of leaves or stalk for burns. Among the Woods Cree of Saskatchewan, stem and leaves went with other plants into a remedy for coughing up blood.
The plant was also simply something to drink. Melvin Gilmore, working along the Missouri River, wrote in 1919 that the leaves were commonly brewed into a hot drink like tea, taken with meals, and that the plant served as a sweetening flavour in cooking. His records cover the Dakota, Omaha, Ponca, Pawnee and Winnebago. The Lakota made tea from it too, and the Woods Cree added the leaves to store-bought tea to improve its taste. The Cree also placed the flowers in medicine bundles, and the Chippewa carried the plant as a protective charm.
Botanists met the plant on the same river. Frederick Pursh described it as Stachys foeniculum in his Flora Americae Septentrionalis, dated 1814, and gave its home as the banks of the Missouri. Otto Kuntze moved it to the genus Agastache in 1891. The genus name joins the Greek words for "very much" and "ear of wheat", a fair picture of the crowded flower spikes, while older names such as Hyssopus anisatus and Lophanthus anisatus all point to the same anise scent.
There is no Greek, Roman, monastic or Hildegard record, because the plant is native to North America and reached Europe only in modern times, first as an ornamental. Today it grows in British, Dutch and German gardens for its long lavender spikes and its value to bees, and in Romania, Moldova, Ukraine and Russia it is also cultivated as a honey plant, for its essential oil and as a tea and flavouring herb. In Manitoba it is described as a potential field crop, cut at the start of flowering, with strong demand in the dried-flower trade and some in the herb-tea market. Modern science has looked mainly at the chemistry of its oil.
Mechanism
The essential oil sets the plant's character. Dried leaves and flowering tops yield about 1.5 to 2.3 percent oil when distilled, and in the common anise type that oil is dominated by the phenylpropanoid estragole, also called methyl chavicol. Three garden samples analysed in 2021 held 88 to 93 percent, a Bulgarian sample 93 percent, and the EMA cites a figure of 74 percent. Estragole is the molecule behind the sweet anise scent, the same one that flavours fennel, aniseed and tarragon. The leaf also carries rosmarinic acid, typical of the mint family, flavonoids such as apigenin, luteolin and quercetin, and triterpenes such as oleanolic and ursolic acid. Rarer types exist in which isomenthone, limonene or pulegone take part of estragole's place, so the oil depends on the plant.
The laboratory work is preclinical. In test tubes the oil scavenges free radicals, stops the growth of several bacteria and of the yeast Candida albicans, and inhibits acetylcholinesterase, the enzyme that breaks down the nerve messenger acetylcholine. Fruit flies fed the dried leaf lived longer, laid more eggs and withstood starvation and oxidative stress better, with higher activity of their own antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase. The chemistry is real and interesting, but none of it has been tested in people, and the oil that performs in the laboratory is the same oil whose estragole calls for caution.
No clinical study of anise hyssop in people exists. The published work is chemistry and laboratory biology. In 2019 Ivanov and colleagues in Plovdiv analysed the oil of a sample bought in a Bulgarian drugstore, 93 percent estragole, and found strong radical-scavenging activity and growth inhibition of nine bacteria, among them Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria and Escherichia coli, as well as of Candida albicans, with only Enterococcus faecalis unaffected. The oil also inhibited acetylcholinesterase to a degree similar to the reference drug galantamine. In 2020 Strilbytska and colleagues in Ukraine fed fruit flies dried leaf powder. Male flies lived 15 percent longer at the lower doses and 32 percent longer at the highest, and the flies laid more eggs and withstood starvation and oxidative stress better. These are in vitro and insect results. They raise questions, but they do not answer them for people.
The genus review by Zielinska and Matkowski (2014) gives the wider frame. Across the roughly 22 Agastache species the chemistry rests on phenylpropanoids such as estragole and on terpenoids, with rosmarinic acid and flavones such as acacetin and tilianin among the non-volatile compounds, and the reported activity comes from laboratory and animal work. Most of that research concerns the East Asian A. rugosa rather than the North American A. foeniculum, so results for one species should not be read across to the other. The safety frame comes from the EMA statement on estragole, which classes estragole as a naturally occurring genotoxic carcinogen and asks that exposure be kept as low as practically achievable.
Evidence
| Outcome | Class | Grade | Effect | Studies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coughs, colds, chest pain and fever (traditional Native American use)The Cheyenne drank a cold leaf infusion for chest pain from coughing and as a cold medicine, the Chippewa an infusion of the root for cough and chest pain, and the Woods Cree took stem and leaves with other plants for coughing up blood. It is recorded ethnobotany, written down from 1905 onwards, and no study has tested it.Cheyenne, Chippewa (Ojibwe) and Woods Cree (ethnobotanical records, 1905 to 1985) | TraditionalTraditional use. Long-standing folk practice or EMA HMPC traditional-use monograph. | DEvidence quality grade D. Preliminary signal. A single small trial, pilot result, or laboratory or animal model. Clinical relevance unclear. This is an evidence rating, not a product endorsement. | Traditional use | |
| Aromatic culinary and tea herbPlains peoples brewed the leaves into a hot tea taken with meals and used the plant to sweeten food. Today the leaf flavours tea, iced drinks, salads and baking. This is a kitchen use, not a health claim, and the concentrated, estragole-rich oil is a separate product.General use as a food and beverage herb | TraditionalTraditional use. Long-standing folk practice or EMA HMPC traditional-use monograph. | DEvidence quality grade D. Preliminary signal. A single small trial, pilot result, or laboratory or animal model. Clinical relevance unclear. This is an evidence rating, not a product endorsement. | Culinary use | |
| Antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of the essential oilIn the study by Ivanov and colleagues (2019), an essential oil that was 93 percent estragole scavenged free radicals, inhibited nine kinds of bacteria and the yeast Candida albicans in culture, and slowed the enzyme acetylcholinesterase in a test tube about as strongly as the drug galantamine. These are laboratory results on the concentrated oil. Nobody has tested them in people, and they say nothing about drinking the tea.In vitro (cell free assays and bacterial cultures) | InsufficientInsufficient data. No reliable trials or traditional sources available. | IEvidence quality grade I (Insufficient). Not enough evidence to draw a conclusion. More research needed. This is an evidence rating, not a product endorsement. | Preclinical only | |
| Lifespan and stress resistanceIn the study by Strilbytska and colleagues (2020), fruit flies fed dried anise hyssop leaf lived longer, male flies by 15 percent at the lower doses and by 32 percent at the highest, and coped better with starvation and oxidative stress. This is an insect model and shows nothing about ageing in people.Fruit fly (Drosophila), an invertebrate animal model | TraditionalTraditional use. Long-standing folk practice or EMA HMPC traditional-use monograph. | IEvidence quality grade I (Insufficient). Not enough evidence to draw a conclusion. More research needed. This is an evidence rating, not a product endorsement. | Animal model only |
The studies that matter.
The EMA's herbal committee reviewed the toxicology of estragole, the main component of anise hyssop oil, and judged it a naturally occurring genotoxic carcinogen in rodents whose activation also occurs in human experimental systems. It lists Agastache foeniculum among the estragole plants, with 74 percent in the oil, and asks for intake as low as practically achievable, with guidance values for herbal medicines in pregnancy, breastfeeding and childhood. It is a regulatory assessment, not a study of the herb, and the weightiest document behind this entry's safety advice.
European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. Public statement on the use of herbal medicinal products containing estragole, Revision 1 Correction 1 SourceResearchers distilled the oil from three anise hyssop plants grown in an Alabama garden and analysed it by gas chromatography. Estragole made up 88 to 93 percent of each oil, with yields of 1.5 to 2.3 percent of the dried herb. It is a small chemical analysis of three samples from one seed source, but the authors note that most published analyses of the species show the same estragole type. The estragole figures in this entry rest on it.
Lawson SK, Satyal P, Setzer WN. Lawson SK, Satyal P, Setzer WN. The volatile phytochemistry of seven Native American aromatic medicinal plants. Plants (Basel) 2021;10(6):1061. doi:10.3390/plants10061061Ukrainian researchers mixed dried anise hyssop leaf into the food of fruit flies at several concentrations. Male flies of one strain lived 15 percent longer at 5 and 10 milligrams per millilitre and 32 percent longer at 30 milligrams, and the flies laid more eggs and survived starvation and oxidative stress better. This is an insect experiment. It says something about the leaf's chemistry and nothing yet about health or ageing in people.
Strilbytska OM, Zayachkivska A, Koliada A, Galeotti F, Volpi N, Storey KB, Vaiserman A, Lushchak O. Strilbytska OM, Zayachkivska A, Koliada A, et al. Anise hyssop Agastache foeniculum increases lifespan, stress resistance, and metabolism by affecting free radical processes in Drosophila. Front Physiol 2020;11:596729. doi:10.3389/fphys.2020.596729Bulgarian researchers distilled the oil from anise hyssop bought in a drugstore and tested it in the laboratory. The oil, 93 percent estragole, scavenged free radicals, inhibited nine kinds of bacteria and Candida albicans in culture, and inhibited acetylcholinesterase about as strongly as the reference drug galantamine. These are test-tube results with a concentrated oil, the weakest level of evidence, and they cannot be carried over to a cup of tea.
Ivanov IG, Vrancheva RZ, Petkova NT, Tumbarski Y, Dincheva IN, Badjakov IK. Ivanov IG, Vrancheva RZ, Petkova NT, Tumbarski Y, Dincheva IN, Badjakov IK. Phytochemical compounds of anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) and antibacterial, antioxidant, and acetylcholinesterase inhibitory properties of its essential oil. J Appl Pharm Sci 2019;9(02):072-078. doi:10.7324/JAPS.2019.90210
Usage
Forms and preparation
Use it like any aromatic mint-family herb. Pour freshly boiled water over the fresh or dried leaf with its flowering tops and let it steep for five to ten minutes for a naturally sweet, anise-scented tea, plain or with honey, hot or iced. In the kitchen the fresh leaf and the edible flowers go into salads, fruit dishes and baking and flavour cold drinks, where the anise note is the whole point. Cooks also pair the leaves with peas and lamb and set them in jellies, and the seeds can go into biscuits and muffins. The essential oil, distilled from the herb, is a concentrated product and a different matter from the tea. It is very rich in estragole and goes into perfumes, liqueurs and flavourings, not into home remedies, so do not take it internally. As a kitchen and tea herb anise hyssop needs no special preparation and is enjoyed for its flavour. The medicinal tradition behind it is the historical Native American use described above, which is background, not a recommended treatment.
Dosage
There is no official dosage, because anise hyssop is a kitchen and tea herb, not a registered medicine. For tea, one to two teaspoons of dried leaf per cup is the usual measure for a leaf herb, and in cooking it is used to taste. Because the oil is rich in estragole, which the EMA advises keeping as low as practically achievable, keep the tea an occasional pleasure, avoid large daily amounts over long periods, and do not take the concentrated essential oil. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding or unsure, stay with occasional kitchen use and ask your doctor.
Special populations
Because anise hyssop is rich in estragole, the concentrated essential oil and regular high intake are best avoided in pregnancy, while breastfeeding and in young children. The EMA wants estragole intake kept as low as practically achievable and sets guidance values for herbal medicines of 0.05 milligrams of estragole a day in pregnancy and breastfeeding and 1 microgram per kilogram of body weight a day for children under 12. Occasional use of the leaf in cooking is ordinary food use, like aniseed or fennel in the kitchen. No regulator has set a dose of anise hyssop itself for any group.
Safety
Drug interactions
No interaction studies exist for anise hyssop, and no regulator lists any. If you take regular medication and plan to use the herb in more than kitchen amounts, or any product made from its oil, talk to your doctor or pharmacist first.
Contraindications
No regulator has drawn up a list of contraindications for anise hyssop, which counts as a food and tea herb. Hypersensitivity to anise hyssop or to other mint family or anise flavoured plants: anyone who reacts to it should avoid it. Concentrated essential oil for internal use: best avoided by everyone, given the very high estragole content and the EMA advice to keep estragole exposure as low as practically achievable. Pregnancy, breastfeeding and young children: best limited to occasional culinary use of the leaf, avoiding the concentrated oil and regular high intake.
Side effects
The published research on anise hyssop is laboratory and animal work and describes no side effects of ordinary tea or kitchen use. As with any mint-family herb, an allergic reaction is possible. The real concern is not an acute effect but long-term exposure to estragole, which is why the concentrated essential oil and prolonged high intake are discouraged. If you notice any reaction, stop and seek advice.
Look-alikes
Similar plants and look-alikes
Korean mint / huo xiang (Agastache rugosa)
The confusion that matters most. Agastache rugosa, Korean mint, is the East Asian species behind huo xiang, a herbal drug of Chinese, Korean and Japanese medicine. It looks much like anise hyssop, and gardeners have crossed the two. 'Blue Fortune', one of the best-known garden agastaches, is a sterile hybrid of both species bred in Rotterdam. Uses, studies and oil analyses of one species do not carry over to the other, so check the botanical name on seed packets and herbal products.
True hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis)
Confused by name only. True hyssop is a Mediterranean mint family herb with narrow leaves, a camphor and pinocamphone scented oil and its own European tradition. Anise hyssop has broad toothed leaves and a sweet anise scent, not a camphor one. They are different plants in the same family; the shared word hyssop is a common name, not a botanical link.
FAQs
Is anise hyssop the same as true hyssop or as a nettle?
No. Despite both names, anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) is neither true hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis) nor a nettle, and it is not related to anise either, which belongs to the carrot family. It is a North American member of the mint family that happens to smell of anise. Anise hyssop, giant hyssop and the German Duftnessel are all common names, so the Latin name is the one to check.
Is anise hyssop approved by the European regulator for any health use?
No. Anise hyssop has no EMA herbal monograph and no authorised health claim in the EU register. In the United States, true hyssop appears on the FDA's lists of spices and essential oils generally recognised as safe, but anise hyssop does not. The European regulatory text that bears on it is the EMA's public statement on estragole, which lists it among the plants whose oil contains this substance.
I have read that the oil contains estragole. Is that a concern?
For the oil, yes. Its main component is estragole, 74 to 93 percent in published analyses, and the EMA classes estragole as a naturally occurring genotoxic carcinogen whose intake should be kept as low as practically achievable. The same substance is in fennel, aniseed, tarragon and basil. The Council of Europe and Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, both cited by the EMA, advise keeping estragole-containing herbs and spices to occasional use in the kitchen. A cup of leaf tea now and then is that kind of use. What to avoid is the concentrated oil and large daily amounts over long periods.
Can it be used in pregnancy or by children?
Keep it to occasional use of the leaf in the kitchen. The EMA wants everyone's estragole intake kept as low as practically achievable and sets separate guidance values for herbal medicines. In pregnancy and breastfeeding it advises against more than 0.05 milligrams of estragole a day, and for children under 12 against more than 1 microgram per kilogram of body weight a day. The concentrated oil and regular large amounts are best avoided in all these groups. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding or unsure, ask your doctor or midwife.
Is this the huo xiang used in Chinese medicine?
No. Huo xiang is Agastache rugosa, Korean mint, an East Asian species counted among the fundamental herbs of Chinese medicine and also used in Korea and Japan. This entry is Agastache foeniculum, the North American anise hyssop. The two share a genus and a family likeness but differ in range, tradition and oil, and most of the laboratory research on the genus concerns A. rugosa, so check the species name.
How old and how broad is the tradition?
It is a North American tradition, written down from 1905 onwards. George Bird Grinnell recorded the Cheyenne leaf tea and chest remedy in 1905, Melvin Gilmore the mealtime tea of the Missouri River peoples in 1919, and Frances Densmore the Chippewa root medicine in 1928. Uses are recorded for at least nine peoples, from the Cheyenne and Lakota to the Chippewa and Woods Cree. Because the plant is native to North America, there is no Greek, Roman or medieval European record.
How do I grow anise hyssop?
Easily, in full sun and well-drained soil. Barely cover the seed, because it needs light to germinate, and expect seedlings in one to four weeks. A spell of cold, moist storage beforehand helps. Plants often flower in their first year, self-sow freely and spread slowly by rhizomes, but they are short-lived, so let a few seedlings stay. Wet ground is the main danger, because it rots the crown. Besides the lavender species there are white forms such as 'Alabaster' and 'Snow Spike' and the lime-leaved 'Golden Jubilee'. For drying, cut the leaves just after full bloom, when their oil content is highest.
11 sources.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. Public statement on the use of herbal medicinal products containing estragole, Revision 1 Correction 1. 2023. Source
- Lawson SK, Satyal P, Setzer WN. Lawson SK, Satyal P, Setzer WN. The volatile phytochemistry of seven Native American aromatic medicinal plants. Plants (Basel) 2021;10(6):1061.. 2021. doi:10.3390/plants10061061
- Zielinska S, Matkowski A. Zielinska S, Matkowski A. Phytochemistry and bioactivity of aromatic and medicinal plants from the genus Agastache (Lamiaceae). Phytochem Rev 2014;13(2):391-416.. 2014. doi:10.1007/s11101-014-9349-1
- Strilbytska OM, Zayachkivska A, Koliada A, Galeotti F, Volpi N, Storey KB, Vaiserman A, Lushchak O. Strilbytska OM, Zayachkivska A, Koliada A, et al. Anise hyssop Agastache foeniculum increases lifespan, stress resistance, and metabolism by affecting free radical processes in Drosophila. Front Physiol 2020;11:596729.. 2020. doi:10.3389/fphys.2020.596729
- Ivanov IG, Vrancheva RZ, Petkova NT, Tumbarski Y, Dincheva IN, Badjakov IK. Ivanov IG, Vrancheva RZ, Petkova NT, Tumbarski Y, Dincheva IN, Badjakov IK. Phytochemical compounds of anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) and antibacterial, antioxidant, and acetylcholinesterase inhibitory properties of its essential oil. J Appl Pharm Sci 2019;9(02):072-078.. 2019. doi:10.7324/JAPS.2019.90210
- Grinnell GB. Grinnell GB. Some Cheyenne plant medicines. American Anthropologist, new series, 1905;7(1):37-43.. 1905. Source
- Densmore F. Densmore F. Uses of plants by the Chippewa Indians. Forty-fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1926-1927. Washington, 1928: 273-379.. 1928. Source
- Gilmore MR. Gilmore MR. Uses of plants by the Indians of the Missouri River region. Thirty-third Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology. Washington, 1919.. 1919. Source
- Moerman DE. Moerman DE. Native American Ethnobotany Database (BRIT), records for Agastache foeniculum (Pursh) Kuntze.. Source
- Missouri Botanical Garden. Missouri Botanical Garden, Plant Finder: Agastache foeniculum (anise hyssop).. Source
- Mahr S. Mahr S. Anise hyssop, Agastache foeniculum. University of Wisconsin Master Gardener, 2015.. 2015. Source
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