What is hyssop? A plain guide

Hyssop usually means Hyssopus officinalis, a woody Mediterranean herb in the mint family whose dried leaves and flowering tops are used as tea, tincture or extract, and whose essential oil is distilled separately. It's also a hardy garden plant and appears repeatedly in the Bible — though "anise hyssop" and "water hyssop" are different, unrelated plants that share only the name.

Hyssop, and the other plants people mean by it

Three different plants get called "hyssop," and mixing them up matters more than it sounds like it should:

• Hyssop / true hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis) is what the rest of this article covers: a small, woody perennial in the mint family (Lamiaceae), native to the Mediterranean and parts of Central Asia, with narrow leaves and spikes of blue-violet, pink or white flowers.
• Anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) is a different genus entirely — also in the mint family, native to North America, and grown mainly as a culinary and tea herb for its anise-like scent and for attracting bees and butterflies. Research on Hyssopus officinalis doesn't tell you anything about Agastache foeniculum, and vice versa.
• Water hyssop (Bacopa monnieri, also called brahmi) isn't in the mint family at all — it's an unrelated aquatic plant studied mostly for cognition, and has nothing else in common with true hyssop beyond the English name.

Everything below is about Hyssopus officinalis, the true hyssop.

Where it comes from and how it's used

True hyssop grows wild on dry, rocky, sunny ground across Southern Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean and parts of Central Asia. The parts used are the leaves and the flowering tops, harvested and dried. From there it's sold in a few distinct forms:

• Dried herb — cut leaf and flower, steeped as tea or used as a cooking herb in small amounts, similar to how sage or thyme is used. The FDA lists hyssop among the spices and natural seasonings generally recognized as safe for this kind of food use (21 CFR 182.10).
• Extract or tincture — the dried herb concentrated into a liquid or powder, sold in capsules or drops.
• Essential oil — steam-distilled from the flowering tops. This is a different product with a different safety profile from the dried herb or an extract, because it concentrates compounds (pinocamphone and isopinocamphone) that aren't a concern in food amounts of the leaf but are in the oil. See hyssop side effects for what the research says about that difference.

In traditional herbal use, hyssop has been taken for coughs, colds and digestive complaints. That's a description of history, not evidence that it works — hyssop benefits: what the research does and doesn't show covers what's actually been tested.

Hyssop in the Bible

Hyssop is named repeatedly in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament — sprinkled with blood at Passover (Exodus 12:22), used in purification rituals after skin disease or contact with a corpse (Leviticus 14, Numbers 19), and in the line "purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean" (Psalm 51:7). A sponge on a hyssop branch appears at the crucifixion in John 19:29.

Whether that plant was Hyssopus officinalis is genuinely disputed. True hyssop isn't native to the Sinai or the Levant, and many botanists who've studied the question think the plant growing "in the wall" that scripture describes was more likely Syrian oregano (Origanum syriacum, the herb behind za'atar) or a caper plant, not the Mediterranean shrub sold as hyssop today. There's no settled answer, and the English word "hyssop" is simply the traditional translation of the Hebrew ezov.

Growing hyssop

Hyssop is also a popular garden herb: a compact, drought-tolerant perennial that bees and butterflies are drawn to, generally hardy in USDA zones 4–9. Questions about watering, spacing, planting dates and harvest timing are gardening questions, not supplement ones — this page and the related articles linked below cover hyssop as something you'd take, not something you'd plant, so a gardening reference is a better source for those specifics.

Questions people ask

How do you pronounce hyssop?

"HISS-up" — two syllables, stress on the first, silent second S. It rhymes with "bishop."

What does hyssop look like?

Hyssopus officinalis is a small, bushy perennial, usually 1–2 feet tall, with narrow gray-green leaves and dense spikes of small tubular flowers, most often blue-violet but sometimes pink or white.

Is anise hyssop invasive?

Anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) self-seeds readily and can spread more than gardeners expect in favorable conditions, which is why some gardening sources describe it as aggressive. That's a different plant from the true hyssop covered in this article, and it isn't the same question as whether true hyssop spreads.

Is hyssop perennial?

Yes — true hyssop is a woody perennial that comes back from the same rootstock year after year in suitable climates, rather than needing to be replanted annually.

Where does the word "hyssop" come from?

The English word traces through Greek hyssopos and Latin, and is generally understood as the traditional translation of the Hebrew ezov used in the Bible — see the section above on why the identity of that plant is disputed.

Related reading: hyssop benefits: what the research does and doesn't show, how much hyssop should you take a day?, and how to choose a good hyssop.