Ingredients"Yerba buena" (also spelled hierba buena) is the Spanish name for a number of aromatic plants, most of which belong to the mint family. The phrase translates literally as "good herb." The specific plant species regarded as yerba buena varies from region to region, depending on what grows wild in the surrounding landscape or which species is customarily grown in local gardens. The term has been used to cover a number of aromatic true mints and mint relatives of the genera Clinopodium, Satureja, or Micromeria.
The three principal botanical species to which the name is applied in different parts of the world are:
Perhaps the most common variation of this plant considered as yerba buena globally is spearmint (Mentha spicata). In parts of Central America, yerba buena often refers to Eau de Cologne mint, a true mint sometimes called "bergamot mint" with a strong citrus-like aroma that is used medicinally and as a cooking herb and tea.
For the purposes of this article, the primary focus is on the species most extensively studied scientifically — Mentha × villosa / Mentha cordifolia / Mentha arvensis (used interchangeably in the Philippine and South/Southeast Asian literature) — with additional coverage of Clinopodium douglasii for its distinct North American ethnobotanical tradition.
Yerba buena (Mentha species) is an aromatic, creeping herb that grows up to 20–40 centimeters high and can reach up to 1 meter in height. It is a perennial plant that takes the form of a sprawling, mat-forming herb. The leaves are about 1.5–4 cm long, oblong-ovate in shape, with serrated margins and wrinkled appearance, and are thinly hairy. The flowers are purple to bluish and appear in axillary head-like whorls.
For Clinopodium douglasii specifically: This species features bright green, rounded to ovate leaves up to 2.5 cm long, small white or lavender flowers in summer, and spreads via rooting stems to form mats up to 2 meters wide but only 10–20 cm tall.
The Philippine yerba buena is known by various local names, including ablebana (Ifugao), herba buena and hilbas (Tagalog), and karapbo (Surigao del Norte), as well as by several English names such as American wild mint, brook mint, corn mint, field mint, tule mint, and peppermint. Different parts of the world have different names for yerba buena; for example, it is known as po-ho in China, hierba buena in Spain, mint or marsh mint in English, minze in Germany, and minta in Italy.
Yerba buena (the Mentha type) is native to Europe and is widely cultivated throughout the Philippines. It is grown throughout the world from North America to Asia and is especially abundant close to coastal areas. The plant is cultivated in various regions including the western United States, Central America, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Colombia, particularly in the Andino region, Cundinamarca, and Antioquia. In the Philippines, yerba buena does not grow in the wild but is widely cultivated.
Mentha arvensis has been used to prepare infusions, decoctions, and distillates, which are liquid extracts obtained through different methods of extraction. These preparations are valued for their ability to extract and preserve the plant's beneficial compounds, such as essential oils and phytochemicals, for use in traditional medicines and natural remedies.
Beyond traditional preparations, the plant is available in several modern forms:
Clinopodium douglasii was widely used by the indigenous peoples of California and the Pacific Northwest Coast, generally in the form of a tea, both as a medicine and as a beverage. Ethnobotanical records of use of the plant are recorded among many indigenous peoples ranging from the Saanich of British Columbia to the Luiseño and Cahuilla of southern California. Later Spanish- and English-speaking settlers learned of the uses of this plant from native peoples and incorporated it into their own folk medicine traditions.
Native people across California have incorporated yerba buena in their food and medicine since time immemorial. Known as tawriSmin in the local Mutsun language, it is traditionally used by Ohlone people to treat toothaches and intestinal parasites, and it continues to feature in modern Ohlone cuisine.
Leaves of this aromatic herb were used by Native Americans and early settlers to brew a pleasant tea to cure stomach ailments, for reducing fevers, and for treating eye infections and colds. Branches of the herb were tossed on the fire to create an aromatic disinfectant. Indigenous peoples wrapped the stems and leaves around their heads to treat headaches.
Spanish missionaries gave the name yerba buena or hierba buena (good herb) to the plant — a Spanish common name for spearmint and other edible mints. In Mexico, it became a staple in traditional curanderismo healing, valued for digestive and anti-inflammatory properties introduced alongside European mint varieties.
The herb has had a long association with the history of San Francisco. In 1776, Pedro Font, the Franciscan chaplain of the de Anza Expedition, noted the abundance of hierba buena around the expedition's encampment at Mountain Lake, near the Presidio of San Francisco, for which the expedition was tasked with finding a site. Yerba buena was the source of the original name of the Mexican village that later became the great city of San Francisco. The town's name was officially changed from Yerba Buena to San Francisco in 1847.
The spread of Mentha × villosa to the Caribbean and Asia occurred through Spanish colonial activities, with the plant introduced to the Philippines around the 16th century as part of European herbal imports during the galleon trade era. Spanish settlers brought mint plants labeled as yerba buena, embedding it in local folk medicine for treating headaches, arthritis, and indigestion.
Traditionally, its leaves and derived preparations have been used to manage a wide range of conditions, including cough, toothache, colds, headache, migraine, dizziness, fainting, hysteria, gas or bloating, arthritis, intestinal worms, menstrual cramps, ear pain, influenza, fever, and general pain, and are also used as a mouthwash.
In the Philippines, the species integrated into indigenous herbalism, becoming a staple for traditional remedies and earning official recognition as one of the Department of Health's ten promoted medicinal plants in the late 20th century.
Philippine traditional use guidelines specify topical applications as well: According to the Guidebook on the Proper Use of Medicinal Plants, yerba buena is collected fresh, heated over fire, then crushed and applied to the forehead or temples as treatment for headaches.
For pain, cough, colds, nausea, dizziness, and pruritus, the parts utilized are the leaves and sap. For pain (headache, stomachache), chopped leaves are boiled in 2 glasses of water for 15 minutes; the decoction is divided into 2 parts, and one part is drunk every 3 hours. For rheumatism, arthritis, and headache, fresh leaves are crushed and the sap is squeezed out for application.
Essential oils are multicomponent mixtures of secondary plant volatiles produced by steam or hydrodistillation. The main constituents of essential oils belong to the mono- and sesquiterpenes, which are classified into hydrocarbons, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, esters, and ethers.
In Mentha arvensis (the cornmint / field mint form), GC-MS analysis has identified the following primary volatile constituents: Menthol (77.94%) is the major compound; other minor compounds present were isomenthone (5.24%), neomenthyl acetate (5.18%), menthone (5.00%), and piperitone (1.32%).
Chemical composition of the plant revealed that the main constituent of the essential oil is monoterpenes. Pulegone is the main compound of the plant responsible for most of its pharmacological effects, along with menthone, isomenthone, menthol, 1,8-cineole, borneol, and piperitenone oxide.
The leaf volatile oil of the Philippine Mentha cordifolia has also been characterized: The leaves contain 0.8% volatile oil, consisting mainly of pulegone, pitoeitone, and limonene, as well as menthol, menthene, and menthenone.
Beyond the essential oil, liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis of Mentha arvensis extracts has identified a range of phenolic and triterpenoid compounds. The compounds oleanolic acid, rosmarinic acid, luteolin, isoorientin, and ursolic acid have been identified through liquid chromatography mass spectrometry analysis.
Other constituents include alpha-pinene, beta-pinene, cadinene, 1,8-cineol, trans-ocimene, 1,3-carvomenthone, isomenthone, 4,8-epoxy-p-menthan-3-one, 2-isopropylcyclopentanone, p-menthan-2,5-diol, beta-sitosterol, and cis-8-pentadecennylactone.
Yerba buena leaves contain a compound called menthalactone, which has been shown to have analgesic or pain-relieving activity. Additionally, yerba buena contains beta-sitosterol and beta-sitosterol beta-d-glucoside (BSSG), which have been identified as pharmacologically relevant.
The observed biological activities of yerba buena are attributed to several broad mechanistic categories:
Overview: Yerba buena was reported to have analgesic, antibacterial, anthelmintic, anticancer, antiviral, and antihypertensive properties. Among all the different activities, its analgesic activity was the only reported pharmacologic indication to have been clinically tested.
Preclinical evidence: Yerba buena leaves contain a compound called menthalactone which has been shown to have analgesic or pain-relieving activity. Results of clinical trials prove that menthalactone is safe and effective in relieving moderate to severe post-operative pain after circumcision, dental extractions, and childbirth (post-episiorrhaphy).
Clinical evidence: A Phase 2 clinical trial was conducted: a double-blind comparative controlled study of Mentha cordifolia Opiz (yerba buena) tablet versus placebo and paracetamol as analgesic for patients with moderate to severe post-operative pain. The clinical trial of yerba buena showed that oral administration of yerba buena and paracetamol produced comparable analgesic efficacy. The drug has been recorded to take effect within 30 minutes after administration.
The Yerba Buena tablet is described as the only clinically proven herbal medicine in the Philippines with analgesic effects, proven efficacious for post-operative pain management.
Evidence strength: Moderate. There is at least one published Phase 2 double-blind randomized controlled trial (RCT) directly comparing yerba buena tablets with paracetamol in post-operative pain, showing comparable efficacy. This represents a higher level of evidence than is available for most herbal medicines in Southeast Asia, though the trial involved specific post-operative patient populations and the full published details (sample size, effect sizes, confidence intervals) are not widely available in peer-reviewed open-access literature.
Animal / in vitro evidence: Significant increases in mean arterial pressure (MAP), heart rate (HR), hind limb vascular resistance (HVR), wall thickness, and cross-sectional area of the thoracic aorta, as well as oxidative stress markers, were found in the L-NAME-treated group compared to control. MAP, HVR, wall thickness, cross-sectional area of the thoracic aorta, plasma malondialdehyde (MDA), and vascular superoxide anion production were significantly reduced in L-NAME hypertensive rats treated with the M. cordifolia extract or quercetin. Furthermore, the M. cordifolia extract induced vasorelaxation in the pre-constricted mesenteric vascular bed with intact and denuded endothelium of normotensive and hypertensive rats.
The overall conclusion of this animal study is that the Mentha cordifolia extract exhibits an antihypertensive effect via its antioxidant capacity, vasodilator property, and reduced vascular remodeling.
Evidence strength: Preliminary. Evidence is limited to animal (rodent) models and in vitro aortic ring preparations. No human clinical trials on the antihypertensive effects of yerba buena have been published in the peer-reviewed literature identified through the 2024 systematic review.
In vitro evidence: Ethanolic extract of Mentha arvensis showed free radical scavenging activity in the DPPH assay (IC50 ~41 μg/mL). The extract also produced prominent antimicrobial activity against Salmonella typhi, Salmonella paratyphi, Shigella boydii, Streptococcus pyogenes, and Staphylococcus aureus compared to standard drug kanamycin at the dose of 30 μg/disc.
A PMC-indexed study (2023) found: Based on antimicrobial research, it has been found that the Mentha arvensis extract shows potential activity against K. pneumoniae, with a zone of inhibition of 13.39 ± 0.16 mm.
Earlier work reported resistance-modifying activity: A study published in the journal Chemotherapy in 2008 reported the testing of the antibiotic resistance-modifying activity of Mentha arvensis. It concluded that extracts could be used as a source of plant-derived natural products with resistance-modifying activity, such as in the case of gentamicin, constituting a new weapon against bacterial resistance to antibiotics.
Evidence strength: Preliminary. All evidence is in vitro. No clinical trials on antimicrobial applications in humans have been identified.
In vitro and in vivo studies of yerba buena showed anthelmintic activity. This has been one of the pharmacological activities documented in the Philippine research corpus. The 2024 Acta Medica Philippina systematic review, which searched databases from 1950 to 2023, confirmed anthelmintic effects among those that met inclusion criteria.
Evidence strength: Preliminary. Evidence remains at preclinical levels. The Philippine DOH traditional use documentation acknowledges its use for "intestinal worms," but no human RCTs have been identified.
Anti-dengue (in vitro): In a published study, researchers investigated the antiviral activity of lyophilized crude leaf extracts of the Philippine marshmint (Mentha arvensis L., commonly called yerba buena) against dengue virus serotype 2 (DENV-2) in vitro. The plant specimen was authenticated by DNA barcoding analysis. Aqueous, methanol, and ethanol leaf extracts were prepared and lyophilized prior to testing for cytotoxicity and antiviral activities. Antiviral activities assessed by plaque reduction assay revealed reduced DENV-2 viral infectivity, with the ethanol extract observed to have the strongest activity, decreasing plaque numbers by 62% relative to the control.
Anti-HIV (in vitro): The 2024 overview also references a 2022 study published in AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses on the in vitro antiviral activity of Mentha cordifolia plant extract in HIV-1 latently infected cells using an established human cell line.
Evidence strength: Very preliminary. All antiviral evidence is in vitro only. Cell-culture findings cannot be directly extrapolated to human clinical outcomes without further pharmacokinetic and clinical study.
In vitro anticancer potential of methanolic and aqueous extracts of whole plants of Mentha arvensis, M. longifolia, M. spicata, and M. viridis at a concentration of 100 μg/mL was evaluated against eight human cancer cell lines — breast, colon, glioblastoma, lung, leukemia, and prostate — using sulforhodamine B (SRB) assay. Methanolic extracts displayed anti-proliferative effects in the range of 70–97% against four human cancer cell lines; however, aqueous extracts were found to be active against HCT-116 and PC-3.
A 2023 PMC study found: The growth of HepG2 cells was observed to be significantly suppressed upon treatment with Mentha arvensis extract.
Evidence strength: Very preliminary (in vitro only). Cell-line cytotoxicity data do not constitute clinical evidence of anticancer efficacy.
Mentha arvensis has demonstrated a greater degree of efficacy in inhibiting alpha-glucosidase, with an inhibition rate of 58.36 ± 0.12, and in inhibiting alpha-amylase, with an inhibition rate of 42.18 ± 0.83. These enzyme inhibition assays are in vitro surrogate markers of potential antidiabetic activity, but do not constitute clinical evidence.
Evidence strength: Very preliminary (in vitro enzyme inhibition only).
Studies have shown that yerba buena possesses antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial properties, among others. The polyphenolic constituents identified — rosmarinic acid, luteolin, isoorientin, and others — are mechanistically consistent with free radical scavenging activity. DPPH scavenging assays have confirmed moderate antioxidant capacity at the in vitro level.
Evidence strength: Preliminary (in vitro). No human intervention trials on antioxidant outcomes have been identified.
Spectral analyses identified an antimutagenic compound from Mentha cordifolia leaves that inhibited the mutagenicity of tetracycline by 68.7% at a dosage of 0.01 mg per 20 g mouse. Statistical analysis using Kruskal–Wallis ANOVA showed that its variance differed from the solvent control group at α = 0.001. Moreover, the isolated antimutagen did not exhibit mutagenic activity at the same dosage.
Evidence strength: Preliminary (animal / in vitro). The antimutagenic compound has been isolated and characterized, but its relevance to human cancer prevention has not been established in clinical trials.
Essential oil, menthol, and menthone were screened for their fungicidal activity against Rhizoctonia solani and Fusarium moniliforme. Menthol was highly effective compared to essential oil as well as menthone. All of them exhibited less activity than the standard bavistin at all tested concentrations.
Evidence strength: In vitro preclinical data only.
Dosages reported in the scientific and official literature include:
Safety studies conducted showed that yerba buena possesses antimutagenic property. Specifically, the isolated compound from M. cordifolia leaves was demonstrated not to exhibit mutagenic activity in the micronucleus test at the same dosage at which it inhibited chemically induced mutagenicity.
Yerba Buena is recognized by the Philippine Department of Health as one of the approved herbal medicines that can be used as a home remedy to treat some aches. Although it is among the ten DOH-approved herbal medicines, it is for mild cases. Yerba buena, along with ulasimang bato and akapulko, is initially part of the 10 herbal medicines or halamang gamot approved by the Philippine DOH.
Several yerba buena species, particularly Mentha cordifolia, contain pulegone as a constituent of the volatile oil. Recent data suggest that pulegone, the ketone often a major constituent of pennyroyal oil, has hepatotoxic effects in animals and man. Pulegone is considered moderately toxic based on LD50 results: rats 150 mg/kg and mice 1709 mg/kg subcutaneous, findings supported by hepatic cytoplasmic vacuolization, diffuse fatty change, necrosis, hemorrhage, inflammation, bile duct hyperplasia, and mineralization. It must be noted that this toxicological profile applies specifically to purified pulegone at elevated concentrations; the pulegone content in whole-plant preparations of M. cordifolia / yerba buena is substantially lower than in pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium), which is characterized by pulegone as its dominant constituent.
All extracts of yerba buena (Mentha arvensis) presented cytotoxic activities against Vero cells in a dose-dependent manner. The half-maximal cytotoxicity concentration (CC50) was calculated at 2,889.60 μg/mL for the aqueous extract, 1,928.62 μg/mL for the methanol extract, and 3,380.30 μg/mL for the ethanol extract. These figures represent the concentrations at which 50% of cell viability is lost; the relatively high CC50 values indicate limited cytotoxicity to normal cells at concentrations likely encountered with typical use, though these are in vitro data only.
Mentha arvensis is described in traditional medicine literature as having emmenagogue properties — meaning it may stimulate or increase menstrual flow. This property is noted historically and caution regarding use during pregnancy is embedded in traditional practice.
The Yerba Buena tablet has been proven efficacious for post-operative pain management and does not have the side effects of common NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs). This assessment derives from the clinical trial program at the University of the Philippines Manila.
The 2024 systematic review (Acta Medica Philippina) found that of 37 studies initially identified through database searches from 1950 to 2023, only 18 met inclusion criteria. Among all the different activities, analgesic activity was the only reported pharmacologic indication to have been clinically tested. This means the considerable range of attributed biological activities — antibacterial, antihypertensive, anthelmintic, antiviral, anticancer — rests on in vitro or animal evidence, and has not yet been evaluated in adequately powered human randomized controlled trials.
Health conditions that Yerba buena may help support.
Body systems that Yerba buena may help support.
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