Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
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Pooneh is the dried leaf and flowering top of wild mint, Mentha longifolia. In Persian homes and in Unani practice it is brewed as a tea for an upset stomach, gas, bloating and a chesty cold, and it is sprinkled over yoghurt drinks and soups as a kitchen herb.
The evidence verdict in one line: Pooneh has deep traditional standing and almost no human trial evidence, so treat it as a pleasant supportive tea rather than a treatment. Traditional use tells you what people have long done with a plant; it is not proof that it works, and that caveat applies to everything below.
One important warning up front. The leaf tea is a different thing from the concentrated essential oil. Some Mentha longifolia plants are rich in pulegone, a compound that can damage the liver in large amounts, so the oil should never be swallowed.
The most likely explanation is simple and mechanical. Mint volatile oils relax the smooth muscle of the gut wall, which may ease cramping and let trapped gas pass.
Menthol and related compounds also create a cooling feeling in the mouth and airways, which can make a blocked nose feel clearer without actually changing the swelling.
Laboratory work shows the oil slows the growth of some bacteria and fungi in a dish, and that the leaf extract mops up free radicals (unstable molecules that damage cells). None of this has been shown to translate into a measured benefit in people.
Pooneh is sold in a few everyday forms.
Dried loose leaf for tea is the usual one, along with tea bags. Fresh leaves are used in cooking, especially with yoghurt, beans and lamb.
You may also see distilled mint water (araq-e pooneh), a steam distillate taken by the spoonful, and the concentrated essential oil, which is for scent and external use only. Powdered leaf appears in some Unani compound formulas.
Wild mint has been used around the Iranian plateau and the eastern Mediterranean for well over a thousand years. Persian medical writers of the Islamic Golden Age, including Avicenna, described mints as warming and drying and used them for a cold, weak stomach.
In Unani practice it sits in the carminative group, meaning herbs given for wind and griping pain. It has stayed in continuous household use as both food and remedy ever since.
See a doctor if stomach pain, bloating or nausea lasts more than two weeks, keeps coming back, or comes with weight loss, vomiting, blood in your stool or black stools.
Stop straight away and seek medical help the same day if you notice yellowing of the skin or eyes, dark urine, pale stools, unusual tiredness or pain under your right ribs. These can be signs of liver trouble.
Get emergency care if anyone swallows mint essential oil, or if a child has trouble breathing after mint oil is used near their face.
Evidence grades and traditional-use labels are explained in our methodology. Nothing here is medical advice.
Reviewed by the HealisticMD editorial team How we grade evidence →
The published evidence for Pooneh is weak or absent. That usually means no controlled trial has tested it, not that a trial found it ineffective — the two are different, and we grade only what has been published.
What it is typically used for, usual dose, cautions, and the study behind it where real trial data exists.
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