Peppermint itself is a relatively "young" remedy compared to turmeric or garlic — it's a hybrid plant first identified and cultivated in England around 1696 — but its parent mint species have a much older medicinal history, with dried mint leaves found among the herbs buried in Egyptian tombs. Ancient Greek and Roman texts describe mint being used for digestive complaints and as a breath freshener, a use that has barely changed in 2,000 years.
Once identified, peppermint quickly became one of the most widely cultivated medicinal herbs in Europe, prized specifically for digestive relief. It later spread to North America with European settlers and became a staple of home apothecaries, valued for its immediate, recognizable cooling and calming effect on the stomach.
Peppermint oil has one of the more consistent evidence bases for a specific condition: irritable bowel syndrome. Multiple independent meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials — one pooling 10 trials and over 1,000 patients, another pooling 12 trials and 835 patients — found enteric-coated peppermint oil significantly more effective than placebo for both global IBS symptoms and abdominal pain specifically, with a favorable safety profile.
The caveat researchers consistently note: more recent studies have somewhat tempered older, more dramatic effect estimates, and formulation matters — enteric-coated capsules designed to release peppermint oil in the small intestine (rather than the stomach) perform more reliably in trials than plain peppermint tea or candy. For general digestive discomfort outside of diagnosed IBS, evidence is more limited than for IBS specifically.
Traditionally used as tea from dried leaves, or as distilled essential oil applied topically (diluted) or inhaled for headache relief. Enteric-coated capsules are a modern innovation designed specifically to improve on traditional preparation by controlling where in the digestive tract the oil is released.