Low-histamine herbs

Fresh herbs are a gap in the measurements. None of the studies we use includes basil, parsley, coriander, mint or dill in its tables, so every herb page here is an estimate, labelled "not measured", and stays hidden from search engines until a dietitian has reviewed it.

What the sources do give is a frame. Herbs are leaves, and among the leafy vegetables a University of Barcelona team measured in Spain, results ran from none to high. Lettuce had no detectable histamine in four samples. Chard had traces, averaging 0.79 mg/kg across eight. Spinach had histamine in all 18 samples, averaging 31.77 mg/kg, and in a study cited by the team's 2021 review it rose significantly over 15 days in the fridge. With no way to place an unmeasured leaf in that spread, we rate fresh leafy herbs 1, "mostly low": probably low, but unchecked.

Parsley is the one herb the sources mention at all. The team's 2018 review describes a study that kept parsley, courgette, broccoli and cucumber in the fridge for three weeks and found no significant change in their histamine or other amines. It gives no level for parsley, but it suggests that storage, the main worry with spinach, does not push parsley's histamine up.

Dried herbs are a separate question. A 2020 review from the same team found no detectable histamine in a group of 12 spice samples sold in Spain, but it does not name them or say whether dried herbs were included. Seeds such as coriander seed and dill seed are spices and are rated on those terms.

No herb appears among the foods charted as excluded by the ten published low-histamine diets in the 2021 review, and a 2024 clinical review lists herbal teas among examples of foods low in histamine. In practice, the dish often matters more than the herb: pesto made with aged cheese, salsa built on tomato and fermented dill pickles are the parts to check, and each herb page says which.

Sources

1. Sánchez-Pérez S, Comas-Basté O, Rabell-González J, Veciana-Nogués MT, Latorre-Moratalla ML, Vidal-Carou MC. Biogenic Amines in Plant-Origin Foods: Are They Frequently Underestimated in Low-Histamine Diets? Foods 7(12):205, 2018. doi:10.3390/foods7120205
2. Sánchez-Pérez S, Comas-Basté O, Veciana-Nogués MT, Latorre-Moratalla ML, Vidal-Carou MC. Low-Histamine Diets: Is the Exclusion of Foods Justified by Their Histamine Content? Nutrients 13(5):1395, 2021. doi:10.3390/nu13051395
3. Comas-Basté O, Sánchez-Pérez S, Veciana-Nogués MT, Latorre-Moratalla M, Vidal-Carou MDC. Histamine Intolerance: The Current State of the Art. Biomolecules 10(8):1181, 2020. doi:10.3390/biom10081181
4. Jochum C. Histamine Intolerance: Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Beyond. Nutrients 16(8):1219, 2024. doi:10.3390/nu16081219