Hyssop vs. Lavender: Two Mint-Family Herbs With Different Chemistry and Uses

Hyssop and lavender are both mint-family herbs, but they do different jobs. Hyssop’s leaves are strongly aromatic and somewhat bitter, with an oil led by pinocamphone and pinenes; culinary lavender is a flower bud whose oil is led by linalool and linalyl acetate, and it tastes floral and sweet.¹²³⁴ Hyssop leans savory and resinous, lavender leans sweet and perfumed, and neither copies the other.

Side by side

For each herb in depth, see hyssop and lavender.

Which hyssop, and which lavender?

Both names cover more than one plant, and that changes the comparison.

• Hyssop. The culinary herb is Hyssopus officinalis, which Kew now lists as Dracocephalum officinale.⁵ Anise hyssop is a different plant, Agastache foeniculum, native from Canada to the northwestern and north-central United States.¹² It is in the same family but a different genus.⁵¹² The “hyssop” of the Bible is a third question; Britannica says it was not Hyssopus officinalis.¹ See hyssop for that story.
• Lavender. Lavandula is a genus of about 30 species.⁷ For cooking, the Herb Society of America calls L. angustifolia the most delightful species, and describes lavandins and other high-camphor lavenders as having a strong, astringent aroma and bitter taste.³ Check the botanical name on the package.

Differences that change the dish

Chemistry. The two oils share almost nothing at the top. Hyssop’s oil is made up mainly of pinocamphone, isopinocamphone, α- and β-pinene and camphene, according to the Wolters Kluwer monograph,² and a 2011 review names pinocamphone, isopinocamphone and β-pinene as principal components.⁸ Lavender’s oil, in a 2021 study of 13 L. angustifolia cultivars, had linalool and linalyl acetate as the principal constituents of every sample.⁴ The Herb Society credits those two compounds with true lavender’s pleasant kitchen flavor, and blames the harshness of other lavenders on cineole and camphor.³ Neither source we opened for hyssop gives percentages for its oil, so we can’t line the two up number for number.

Bitterness and strength. Hyssop is the more bitter of the two, and a little goes a long way. Lavender turns soapy rather than bitter when overdone. Both statements are kitchen judgment. The Herb Society’s advice for lavender is to use less than you think and add gradually.³

Part of the plant. Hyssop is a leaf herb, chopped into a dish.¹ Lavender is a bud, usually dried, and often infused in cream, sugar or syrup and strained out; the infusing is common practice rather than a sourced finding. The Herb Society says dried buds are three times more concentrated than fresh blooms, which is their rule of thumb.³

Savory vs. sweet. Britannica lists both savory and sweet uses for hyssop: meats, fish, vegetables, salads, sweets and liqueurs.¹ The Wolters Kluwer monograph adds that extracts have flavored liqueurs, sauces, puddings and candies.² Lavender’s uses run mostly sweet: Britannica says it is sometimes used to flavor beverages and sweets,⁷ and the Herb Society’s list runs from cookies, cakes, custards and ice cream to lemonade and cocktails, with savory uses in roast chicken and beef using lower-camphor lavandins alongside rosemary, sage and thyme.³

Health claims and safety

Medicinal claims are not a reason to choose one over the other.

• Hyssop. The Wolters Kluwer monograph says hyssop has many traditional uses but no clinical trial data supporting them, and the 2011 review found human studies lacking.²⁸ Britannica records a strong leaf tea sweetened with honey as a traditional remedy for nose, throat and lung complaints.¹ That is tradition, not evidence.
• Lavender. NCCIH says studies suggest that a lavender oil product taken orally might help with anxiety, and that the benefits of lavender aromatherapy for sleep and some types of pain are unclear.¹¹ That evidence concerns concentrated oil products, not lavender in a cookie. We found no source supporting lavender as a remedy for poor digestion or inflammation.
• The oils are not interchangeable either. The Wolters Kluwer monograph reports that commercial hyssop oils caused convulsions in rats at 0.13 g/kg, links the neurotoxicity to pinocamphone and isopinocamphone, notes case reports of seizures in adults and children, and advises against use in pregnancy.² Those findings concern the oil, not leaves used as a seasoning. For lavender, NCCIH says it is likely safe in the amounts typically used in foods.¹¹

Both hyssop and lavender are on FDA’s lists of spices and essential oils generally recognized as safe for their intended use.⁹¹⁰ This page makes no claim that either herb treats or prevents any condition.

Can one stand in for the other?

Only partly. No published source gives a ratio for this swap in either direction. The first starting point below is the one on our hyssop substitutes page; the second is ours.

• Lavender for hyssop. Lavender gives you hyssop’s floral side but none of its pine or bitterness (our judgment). Use L. angustifolia sold for cooking, and add more as you go.³ In a savory dish, rosemary or sage covers hyssop better; see hyssop substitutes.
• Hyssop for lavender. Hyssop can stand in for lavender’s resinous, herbal side in a roast or a rub, but it is more bitter and less floral, so start low (our starting point). In a lavender shortbread or custard, it is a poor swap; lemon zest or edible rose petals are closer to the job, as the lavender substitutes page explains.
• Never swap the oils. Hyssop oil is not a substitute for anything in food, for the reasons above.²

What isn’t known

• No published ratio exists for swapping hyssop and lavender in either direction.
• No sensory study compares their strength or flavor.
• The hyssop oil sources we could open give its main compounds but no percentages.²⁸
• No dated price comparison was found.

Related

• Hyssop, cooking with hyssop and hyssop substitutes
• Lavender, cooking with lavender, lavender substitutes, how to dry lavender and how to store lavender
• Rosemary vs. lavender and sage vs. lavender
• Herbes de Provence, rosemary, mint and sage