- Lemongrass tea is a naturally caffeine-free tisane brewed from Cymbopogon citratus, the same stalk that flavors Thai and Vietnamese kitchens; a compound called citral gives it the lemon-drop character.
- The famous calming claim failed its only human tea trial: healthy volunteers who drank it for two weeks showed no anti-anxiety or sleep effect, a null result Memorial Sloan Kettering still cites.
- The strongest human data, a 105-person 30-day Nigerian study, recorded higher hemoglobin and modestly lower blood pressure, though it had no placebo group; the same series saw reduced kidney filtration at high doses.
- Memorial Sloan Kettering advises avoiding lemongrass in pregnancy because two of its compounds caused birth defects in rat studies, and suggests keeping intake near normal culinary amounts.
- Fresh stalks make the brightest cup: trim, bruise with the back of a knife, and steep in just-boiled water for five to ten minutes.
Lemongrass tea occupies strange territory in the herbal aisle. It is sold almost everywhere as a calming bedtime drink, yet the one clinical trial that gave the actual tea to people and measured calm found nothing. The research that is interesting, on red blood cells, blood pressure and oral thrush, rarely makes the marketing copy. This guide grades every major claim against the human evidence for the drink itself, carries the cautions the listicles omit, and finishes with how to brew the stalk properly.
What Is Lemongrass Tea?
Lemongrass is a tall tropical grass in the genus Cymbopogon, which holds more than 140 species across Africa and Asia. The one in your teacup and your tom yum is almost always Cymbopogon citratus, the West Indian type grown for cooking; its cousin C. flexuosus, the East Indian type, feeds the perfume and essential-oil trade. The tea is nothing more than the plant in hot water, either fresh stalks, bruised and steeped, or the dried leaves that Brazilians brew as a covered infusion called abafado. In the Caribbean and West Africa the same plant is called fever grass, a name that records centuries of folk use.
The signature compound is citral, which supplies the clean lemon-candy aroma without any citrus acidity, backed by a second terpene called myrcene. Both return later, because both drive the safety cautions as well as the flavor.
Botanically this is not tea at all. Lemongrass never meets the Camellia sinensis bush, which places it in the herbal family covered in our guide to tisanes, the herbal teas that are not really tea. That also means it is naturally caffeine-free, a point worth understanding properly via our guide to caffeine in tea if you are switching your evening cup.
Lemongrass Tea Benefits: The Evidence, Graded
Most lemongrass articles list eight or ten benefits without telling you that many rest on essential-oil experiments, lab dishes or rodents rather than on anyone drinking the tea. The scorecard below grades each popular claim strictly against human studies of the drink or its close preparations, the same discipline we applied to green tea, rooibos and ginger.
| Claim | Best human evidence for the tea | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Calms anxiety | Volunteers drank the leaf infusion as single doses and daily for two weeks: no anti-anxiety effect | Not shown for the drink; the positive human data used inhaled aroma instead |
| Improves sleep | The same trial found no sedative or hypnotic effect; sedation appears only in animal studies | Not shown in humans |
| Supports red blood cells | 105 healthy adults drank a daily leaf infusion for 30 days; hemoglobin, packed cell volume and red cell counts rose | Preliminary: one study, no placebo group |
| Lowers blood pressure | The same 105-person program recorded falls in diastolic pressure, pulse pressure and heart rate by days 10 and 30 | Preliminary: healthy subjects, not a hypertension trial; 2022 reviewers call the evidence limited |
| Fights oral thrush | A 90-patient South African pilot in people living with HIV tested the infusion against gentian violet; the lemongrass arm held its own with the fewest side effects | Encouraging pilot, openly flagged by the journal as below trial-standard rigor |
| Helps gum disease | Positive periodontitis results used an essential-oil gel and a 0.25 percent oil mouthwash, never the beverage | Different form; says little about your teacup |
| Lowers cholesterol or blood sugar | Two weeks of daily tea changed neither cholesterol, triglycerides nor glucose in volunteers; the striking diabetes results are from rats | Not shown for the drink |
| Settles digestion | Folk use on four continents and rat studies showing protection against gastric lesions, but no human trial of the tea | Untested in humans |
The Calming Claim Failed the Teacup Test
The foundational study is Brazilian: in 1986, pharmacologists led by J.R. Leite brewed abafado from dried leaves and gave it to healthy volunteers, as a single dose and then daily for two weeks, measuring sleep and anxiety alongside a full safety panel. The result, published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology, was flatly negative: no hypnotic effect, no anxiolytic effect. Memorial Sloan Kettering summarizes it without hedging: in clinical studies, lemongrass tea did not lower anxiety or produce calming effects.
The best-known positive human result had participants inhale lemongrass essential-oil aroma before an anxiety test. That is aromatherapy, a different route, dose and preparation from anything that happens when you sip a mug. Animal studies of the oil do show sedative and GABA-linked activity, which explains why researchers keep looking. But as of today, nobody has shown the drink itself calms a human being. If your evening cup relaxes you, credit the warmth and the ritual, both perfectly good reasons to keep pouring it.
Blood Counts and Blood Pressure: The 105-Person Study
The most substantial human research on the actual tea comes from a program at the University of Uyo, Nigeria, led by Christopher Ekpenyong. In it, 105 healthy young adults drank an infusion of powdered lemongrass leaf once daily for 30 days. Two published findings matter. First, hemoglobin concentration, packed cell volume and red cell counts all rose, which the authors framed as an erythropoiesis boost with potential against anemia. Second, within the same program, blood pressure measures and resting heart rate drifted downward, with falls in diastolic and pulse pressure recorded at days 10 and 30.
The honest caveats: these were healthy young volunteers rather than people with anemia or hypertension, there was no placebo arm, and the findings come from a single research group. A 2022 comprehensive review of the anti-hypertensive potential of lemongrass concluded the human evidence remains limited. Treat these results as a promising signal worth bigger trials, not as a treatment plan.
Thrush and Gums: Promising, but Mind the Form
The most clinically useful lemongrass finding involves oral thrush. In a South African pilot published in Phytomedicine in 2009, 90 patients living with HIV/AIDS were randomized to standard gentian violet solution, lemon juice, or a lemongrass infusion brewed from dried leaves. Among those who completed treatment the plant preparations held their own against the standard remedy, and the lemongrass arm logged the fewest adverse events with high compliance. The journal editors published it with an unusual note admitting the pilot fell short of good-clinical-practice standards, precisely to encourage larger trials. Memorial Sloan Kettering files it as may help, more studies needed.
Gum disease is a different story of forms. The periodontitis trials that show real improvements used a lemongrass essential-oil gel placed by dentists and a 0.25 percent oil mouthwash. Those concentrations have no beverage equivalent, so they belong to the pharmacy shelf, not the teapot. This tea-versus-extract gap runs through the whole lemongrass literature, and keeping it straight is most of the difference between what the plant might do and what your cup will do.
Side Effects and Who Should Skip It
Lemongrass earns its reputation as a gentle everyday tisane at culinary doses, and the 1986 human trial backs that up: two weeks of daily drinking produced normal results across serum chemistry, urinalysis, EEG and EKG. But the sourced caution list, drawn from Memorial Sloan Kettering’s About Herbs monograph, is longer than most tea blogs let on.
The kidney finding deserves top billing because it comes from the same Nigerian program that produced the benefit data. In a companion paper in the Journal of Renal Nutrition, estimated glomerular filtration rate and creatinine clearance declined with higher doses and prolonged consumption. MSK translates it plainly: excessive intake of lemongrass tea may affect kidney function. A mug or two most days sits comfortably inside normal use; treating it like water does not, and anyone with kidney disease should ask their nephrologist first.
Pregnancy is the second hard line. High doses of citral and myrcene, the two compounds that define lemongrass, caused birth defects in rat studies, and MSK advises that it may be sensible to avoid lemongrass during pregnancy. No human harm has been demonstrated, but with a plant drunk purely for pleasure, the cautious read is to switch cups for those months.
Beyond those two, the trial literature records mild, occasional effects: dizziness, drowsiness, dry mouth, increased urination and increased appetite. One case report describes a 52-year-old massage therapist who developed an essential-oil contact allergy and whose rash returned after she drank lemongrass tea, so anyone sensitized to lemongrass oil in skincare should treat the beverage with suspicion too. On paper, citral induces glutathione-S-transferase enzymes and myrcene can interfere with the CYP450 liver enzymes that metabolize many medications; no actual interaction has been reported and the clinical relevance is undetermined, but heavy intake is worth mentioning to your pharmacist if you take daily medication. Finally, the concentrated essential oil is not a beverage ingredient: at high oral doses it damaged liver and stomach lining in animal studies.
How to Brew Lemongrass Tea
Lemongrass is forgiving to brew, and the form you start from shapes the cup more than technique does.
| Form | Method | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh stalks | Trim the root end and woody tops, keep the pale lower bulb, bruise hard with the back of a knife, then steep in just-boiled water for 5 to 10 minutes or simmer briefly | The brightest, most aromatic cup; bruising ruptures the oil cells that hold the citral |
| Dried leaf | 1 to 2 teaspoons per cup, freshly boiled water, about 5 minutes, lid on | Softer and hay-tinged; this is the abafado style used in the Brazilian research |
| Teabags | Follow the packet; most commercial bags blend lemongrass with ginger, verbena or green tea | Convenience, plus whatever the blend adds |
| Iced | Brew double strength from fresh stalks, sweeten lightly while hot, pour over ice | The chilled lemongrass coolers poured all over Southeast Asia |
Two habits improve every version. Keep a lid on while it steeps, because citral is volatile and rides out on the steam. And add honey or a coin of fresh ginger at the end rather than the start, so the aromatics stay distinct. The water-and-timing fundamentals in our guide to brewing tea properly apply here in relaxed form: boiling water is fine, and an extra minute makes the cup stronger rather than bitter.
A Kitchen Herb That Travels
Part of the pleasure of lemongrass is that the teacup connects directly to food cultures you can visit. In Thailand the same stalk, takhrai, perfumes tom yum broth, and chilled lemongrass drinks sweat alongside street-food stalls across the country; travelers curious about how the Thai approach hot drinks more broadly can read our guide to the Thai tea ceremony. In Vietnam the stalk is sa, pounded into marinades and simmered into herbal drinks, one thread in a tea culture explored in our guide to the Vietnamese tea ceremony. Brazil brews capim-santo as the covered abafado infusion that its pharmacologists took into the lab in 1986. Across the Caribbean and West Africa, fever grass remains a first-resort home remedy, and in Mexico te de limon grows by kitchen doors for exactly the same purpose. Few herbs let you drink your way across four continents this cheaply.
Buying, Growing and Storing
Fresh stalks are a produce-aisle staple in any Asian grocery and increasingly common in supermarkets: choose firm, tightly wrapped stalks with pale bulbs and no dry rattle. They freeze beautifully whole, and frozen stalks bruise and steep as well as fresh ones. Dried leaf keeps its aroma for months in an airtight tin away from light; the principles in our guide to storing tea for freshness apply unchanged. Lemongrass is also among the easiest tea plants to grow: a grocery stalk stood in water roots within weeks, then lives in a pot you bring indoors for winter.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does lemongrass tea help you sleep?
No human study has shown that it does. The one clinical trial that measured sleep effects found no hypnotic action after single doses or two weeks of daily drinking, and the sedation findings come from animal studies of the oil. It is still a sensible caffeine-free evening cup, and the warm-drink ritual itself can ease the wind-down.
Is lemongrass tea safe to drink every day?
At a mug or two a day it appears safe for healthy adults: a two-week human trial found normal blood chemistry, urine tests, EEG and EKG. The cautions are high doses and long unbroken runs, which reduced kidney filtration markers in a 105-person study, plus pregnancy, where experts advise avoiding lemongrass entirely.
Does lemongrass tea lower blood pressure?
Preliminary evidence says modestly, in healthy people. A 30-day Nigerian study of 105 adults recorded falls in diastolic pressure, pulse pressure and heart rate, but it lacked a placebo group and 2022 reviewers judged the human evidence limited. It is not a substitute for treatment, and anyone on blood pressure medication should flag regular intake to their clinician.
Is lemongrass tea caffeine-free?
Yes, completely. Lemongrass is a tropical grass, not the Camellia sinensis tea bush, so the infusion contains no caffeine at any steep time or strength. That makes it a like-for-like evening replacement for green or black tea, as long as you are swapping for the caffeine and not for a proven sedative effect, which the tea does not have.
What does lemongrass tea taste like?
Expect lemon-drop aroma without lemon-juice sourness: bright citrus perfume up front, a clean grassy middle, and a faint gingery warmth in the finish, in a cup that pours pale straw-green. Fresh bruised stalks give the most vivid version, dried leaf a softer, hay-tinged one, and neither turns bitter if oversteeped.