Epazote is a pungent herb used primarily in Mexican cooking, where it flavors beans, soups, salsas, and moles. It also has a long history as a traditional remedy for intestinal parasites and digestive complaints. Native to Central and South America, epazote belongs to the goosefoot family and grows easily in warm climates, which helped it spread across the tropics and into parts of the southern United States.
How Epazote Is Used in Cooking
If there’s one dish most associated with epazote, it’s a pot of black beans. The herb is considered essential in many Mexican kitchens for seasoning beans, and cooks have long claimed it reduces the gas beans cause (though the evidence for that is mostly anecdotal). A few fresh leaves tossed into the pot during the last 15 minutes of cooking is the standard approach. The flavor is strong, so a little goes a long way.
Beyond beans, epazote shows up across a wide range of traditional Mexican dishes. It’s a key ingredient in pozole verde, green chile enchiladas, and salsa verde. A single leaf tucked inside tetelas, the triangular corn “hot pockets” filled with cheese and refried beans, adds a distinctive flavor that’s hard to replicate with any substitute. The herb also plays a role in chirmol, an ancient Mexican sauce considered a precursor to the better-known moles, and it appears in some mole recipes as well.
The taste is hard to pin down for anyone who hasn’t tried it. People describe it variously as citrusy, minty, slightly medicinal, or reminiscent of oregano and anise, but none of those comparisons quite capture it. The aroma is similarly intense, almost petroleum-like when raw, which mellows considerably with cooking. Dried epazote is available but much less flavorful than the fresh leaves. If you’re cooking with the dried version, you’ll typically need about twice as much to achieve a comparable effect.
Traditional Medicinal Uses
Epazote has been used as a remedy for intestinal worms for centuries across Mesoamerica and the Andes, where it goes by the name paico. Beginning in the 18th century, Europeans adopted the plant as an anthelmintic (a substance that expels parasitic worms), and by the 19th century, the essential oil distilled from epazote had become a commercial product. Known as “Baltimore oil” because of the industry that grew up around it in Maryland, this extract was widely used into the early 1900s to treat worm infections.
The compound responsible for that antiparasitic effect is ascaridole, which makes up more than 50% of the weight of the distilled oil. Ascaridole is toxic to parasites but also toxic to humans in concentrated doses, which is why the distilled oil fell out of medical use as safer pharmaceutical treatments became available. Interestingly, research has shown that water-based preparations of epazote, like the teas traditionally brewed by indigenous communities, contain very little ascaridole yet still demonstrate activity against parasitic worms, suggesting other compounds in the plant contribute to its effects.
In folk medicine traditions throughout Latin America, epazote tea has also been used to ease stomachaches, bloating, and cramps. These digestive uses are less well studied than the antiparasitic properties, but they help explain why the herb became so closely linked to bean dishes, where both flavor and digestive comfort were the goal.
Safety Concerns
In the small quantities used in cooking, epazote is safe for most people. The risk comes from concentrated forms, particularly the essential oil. Consuming large amounts of epazote oil can cause vomiting, dizziness, liver damage, and in extreme cases, death. This is why the distilled oil is no longer used medicinally.
Epazote is contraindicated during pregnancy and breastfeeding. The plant has documented abortifacient properties, meaning it can stimulate uterine contractions and potentially cause miscarriage. Traditional medical references list adverse effects including contractions, abortion, vomiting, and sedation. This applies to medicinal doses (teas and extracts), not necessarily the trace amounts found in a bowl of black beans, but pregnant and nursing individuals are generally advised to avoid it entirely.
Growing Epazote at Home
Epazote is one of the easiest herbs to grow, sometimes to a fault. It thrives in warm temperate, subtropical, and tropical climates and tolerates a remarkably wide range of soil conditions, with a pH tolerance spanning from 5.2 to 8.3. The seeds need light to germinate, so they should be pressed onto the soil surface rather than buried. Once established, the plant self-seeds aggressively and can become weedy if left unchecked.
In warmer parts of the United States, epazote grows as a perennial. In cooler regions, it behaves as an annual but often reseeds itself the following spring. It prefers full sun and doesn’t need much water once established, making it a low-maintenance addition to a kitchen herb garden. Fresh leaves can be harvested throughout the growing season, and because the flavor is so potent, even a single plant produces more than enough for regular cooking.
Finding and Storing Epazote
Fresh epazote is commonly stocked at Latin American grocery stores, especially in areas with large Mexican communities. Some farmers’ markets carry it seasonally. If you can’t find it fresh, dried epazote is sold at specialty spice shops and online retailers, though the flavor difference is significant.
Fresh leaves keep for about a week in the refrigerator when wrapped loosely in a damp paper towel and placed in a plastic bag. For longer storage, the leaves can be frozen in ice cube trays with a small amount of water or oil, then added directly to soups and beans during cooking. Drying your own fresh epazote at home preserves more flavor than commercially dried versions, since you can control how long it sits on a shelf before use.