Summary

Peppermint and ginger are two of the best herbs for digestive health, and they work in opposite directions. Peppermint relaxes the gut and calms spasm, so it suits cramping and trapped wind. Ginger stimulates the gut and settles nausea, so it suits a stomach that feels heavy, slow and full. This post explains what each one does, what the research found, and how I use them.

Key takeaways

• Peppermint is a relaxant. Its menthol eases the muscle spasm behind cramping and trapped wind.
• Peppermint oil in a coated capsule was better than placebo for IBS across ten trials, and ranked first among the standard IBS options in a second analysis.
• Peppermint relaxes the valve at the top of your stomach, so it can make reflux worse. If you drink a lot of peppermint tea and have reflux, stop the tea first.
• Ginger is a stimulant. In one trial it halved the time a meal took to leave the stomach.
• Ginger settles nausea, whether that is morning sickness, travel sickness or the queasy fullness of a bloated stomach.
• Both have centuries of use for exactly these complaints, recorded in the European herbal monographs.

Bloating, cramps and a heavy, uncomfortable stomach after a meal are common complaints, and the help you need may already be in your kitchen. Peppermint and ginger have been used for digestion for centuries, and modern trials back up that long use.

Yet these two herbs are quite different. Both can ease an uncomfortable stomach, but each one does it in its own way. Peppermint has a calming, relaxing effect on the gut, easing spasms and trapped wind. Ginger does the opposite. It stimulates the movement of your digestive tract, so a meal leaves your stomach sooner and your gut keeps itself clear between meals.

Once you understand that difference, you’ll understand which herb suits which kind of discomfort. That is what this post is about. I believe that keeping a simple herbal remedy to hand makes a great deal of sense, and these two are among the easiest to use.

Peppermint for your digestion

Peppermint is one of the most accessible herbs there is, and one of the easiest to use. Herbalists call it a relaxant, because that is what it does. It relaxes muscle and calms spasm, and the gut is a long muscular tube, so a relaxant is exactly what a cramping, griping belly needs. That reputation is old. The European assessment report records peppermint leaf for dyspepsia, flatulence and intestinal colic. It also quotes an English medical dictionary from 1800, which describes the oil as relieving spasmodic pain in the stomach and bowels and expelling wind.

The reason it works is menthol, the compound that gives peppermint its cool, clean taste. Menthol blocks the flow of calcium into the muscle cells of the gut wall, and muscle cannot contract without calcium. That is the same action as some prescribed antispasmodic drugs, and it was shown in laboratory work on gut muscle nearly forty years ago. When the muscle lets go, spasm eases, trapped wind can move along, and the pressure and cramping settle. Peppermint also increases the flow of bile, which helps your body to digest fats, and it has a numbing effect on gut pain.

So peppermint is a good match for irritable bowel syndrome, where the gut is prone to painful spasm. This is where the research is strongest. Across ten trials in 1,030 people with IBS, peppermint oil capsules were better than placebo for overall IBS and for abdominal pain. A network analysis of 51 trials compared all the standard IBS options, from soluble fibre to antispasmodic drugs and low dose antidepressants. Peppermint oil ranked first for overall improvement.

Like ginger, peppermint also settles nausea. Menthol acts on the same serotonin receptor in the gut that some drugs for sickness target. I’ve found it useful for morning sickness, and for nausea during chemotherapy.

There is one thing to know before you rely on it. The muscle that peppermint relaxes includes the valve at the top of your stomach, the oesophageal sphincter. Its job is to keep the acidic contents of your stomach down where they belong. When peppermint relaxes it, acid can rise into the oesophagus and cause heartburn. So, if someone comes to see me who drinks a lot of peppermint tea and also complains of reflux, the first thing I suggest is to stop the tea. Often that is enough.

How to use peppermint

In food, the fresh leaves add a cooling, refreshing flavour. Chopped mint goes into salads, smoothies, dips and desserts. Tabbouleh and tzatziki are the classic examples, and both are worth making at home.

Peppermint tea is the simplest way to take it after a meal. It eases fullness and wind by relaxing tense intestinal muscle. An infusion carries only around a fifth to a quarter of the oil in the leaf. So tea is gentler than the capsule, and it works higher up in the gut.

Peppermint oil capsules are the form used in the IBS trials. The oil only acts on the gut for minutes at a time. So the capsule is coated to survive the stomach and release the oil lower down in the bowel, where the spasm is. That is also what keeps the oil away from the valve at the top of the stomach.

On the skin, peppermint is interesting because the effect depends on the strength. A high concentration in a balm feels warming, even hot, and can irritate. A low concentration feels cooling, and that cooling is what eases a tension headache rubbed into the temples, or the itch of an insect bite.

Ginger for your digestion

Ginger is such a useful herb, and not only as a way to add heat to a curry. In clinic it has so many uses, and digestion is where I use it most. Where peppermint relaxes, ginger stimulates. It is warm and pungent, and its warmth gets a sluggish digestion working again. That use is ancient. The European assessment report, revised in 2025, records ginger in Western herbal medicine for dyspepsia, flatulent colic and gastritis. Ayurveda uses it as a carminative and a promoter of digestion, and Chinese medicine for abdominal distension and vomiting. Its monograph gives the traditional use as mild spasmodic gut complaints including bloating and flatulence.

What ginger does is improve motility, the muscular movement of your digestive tract. That works at two levels. After a meal it helps your stomach to empty. Between meals it works on the migrating motor complex, the housekeeping waves that sweep the stomach and small bowel clear when they are empty. In a small manometry study in the EMA report, ginger stimulated those between meal waves in the stomach. The heat in ginger comes from compounds called gingerols, and the same compounds act on the muscle of the stomach wall. In a trial in 24 healthy volunteers, ginger halved the time a soup meal took to half empty from the stomach. It took 13 minutes against 27 with placebo, and the contractions of the lower stomach increased as well. The same researchers then repeated the study in people with functional dyspepsia. That is the medical name for a stomach that feels full, heavy and slow, and they found faster emptying again. So when a woman tells me her food just sits there after a meal, ginger is a herb I think of.

Ginger is also the herb for nausea. Gingerols act on the serotonin receptor in the gut that sends the sickness signal to your brain, which is the same receptor some drugs for sickness block. Its use for travel sickness is well established enough to hold a licence in several European countries. In a 2023 analysis of trials in pregnancy, ginger reduced nausea compared with placebo. And, in my experience it helps with the queasy, bloated feeling of a stomach that has not emptied, which is the everyday version of the same thing.

Its uses go well beyond digestion. Ginger is antimicrobial, so it finds its way into my formulas for respiratory infections. It is anti-inflammatory, and I use it for osteoarthritis, especially alongside boswellia. The traditional form is the fresh rhizome. It can also be used as a tincture rubbed into the skin as a liniment, or grated as a poultice on a sprain or strain. In a salve or balm it stimulates circulation to aching muscles. And as a tea with a spoon of manuka honey, it makes a gargle for a sore throat and a congested chest.

How to use ginger

In food, ginger adds warmth to stir fries, curries, soups and marinades. It also gives a spicy note to smoothies and to baking, from gingerbread to cake.

Ginger tea is a classic remedy for digestive discomfort and nausea. A few slices of fresh root in hot water is all it takes. I like ginger tea just as it is, but sometimes I add honey and lemon or lime for the flavour.

Ginger supplements are available, but ginger in any form has medicinal properties. A capsule, a tea, a crystallised chew or a piece grated into your dinner all count. My preference is, as usual, a food first approach.

Peppermint or ginger for digestive health?

Knowing the character of each herb helps you to choose between them. Peppermint is cooling and relaxing. It calms spasm, so it suits cramping, griping and trapped wind, and the IBS evidence behind it is strong. Ginger is warming and stimulating. It gets a slow stomach moving and settles nausea, so it suits the heavy, full, queasy feeling after a meal.

They are two of the best herbs for digestive health, and both are easy to include in cooking, as a tea or as a capsule. Bloating that keeps coming back usually has a cause behind it, and finding that cause is what a consultation is for. In the meantime, these two are a sensible place to start. I’d love to hear from you if you decide to give them a try.