Overview
About Lemongrass
Despite the name, lemongrass is not a citrus and contains no lemon.
It is a tropical grass, and the lemony aroma comes from citral, a compound it happens to share with lemon peel. That distinction is worth stating clearly, because people avoiding citrus often cut lemongrass out of Thai and Vietnamese cooking for no reason. The grades back that up: histamine A, and only a mild liberator at B, where lemon and lime are strong histamine liberators. It is also clean on FODMAPs, fructans, gluten, lactose, dairy protein, nightshade, nickel, sulfite, glutamates, lectins and SIBO fermentation, and it is anti-inflammatory friendly and AIP compliant. The one honest caveat is salicylate at C, the moderate level typical of aromatic herbs, with oxalate a mild B alongside it.
Sensitivities
How Lemongrass scores
Watch for
What trips people up
- Salicylate C is the only meaningful grade. Aromatic plants concentrate salicylates, and lemongrass is no exception, though a bruised stalk simmered in a broth and then lifted out is a much smaller dose than a paste with the stalk blended in
- It is not citrus, so avoiding it as part of a citrus elimination is a wasted restriction. There is no citric acid and none of the citrus proteins involved in true citrus reactions
- The dish is usually the trigger, not the stalk. Recipes that call for lemongrass almost always carry garlic, shallot, fish sauce or shrimp paste too, and those are far higher on FODMAP, histamine and glutamate than the herb is
- Form changes the dose sharply. A whole stalk is a flavouring you remove before eating, a curry paste means you eat all of it, and lemongrass tea or essential oil is more concentrated again
- Oxalate B is mild and only relevant if you are counting oxalate strictly and drinking lemongrass tea regularly rather than cooking with a stalk
Diet fit
Where it fits
Swap ideas
More alternatives
FAQ
Common questions about Lemongrass
Is lemongrass a citrus fruit?
No. It is a grass, botanically unrelated to lemons, limes or oranges, and it contains no lemon at all. The smell comes from citral, an aroma compound that also appears in lemon peel, which is where the name and the confusion come from. If you avoid citrus, that avoidance does not need to extend to lemongrass.
Is lemongrass safe for histamine intolerance?
It grades histamine A and only a mild liberator at B, so it is one of the safer aromatics for a low histamine kitchen. This is the practical difference between it and actual citrus: lemon and lime are graded strong histamine liberators, so lemongrass can give a dish that bright, sharp lift without the liberator load.
Is lemongrass low FODMAP?
Yes. It grades A across FODMAPs, fructans, GOS, excess fructose and polyols, which makes it one of the more useful flavour bases when garlic and onion are excluded. Just remember that the rest of a Thai or Vietnamese recipe is usually where the FODMAPs live.
Is lemongrass high in salicylates?
It is moderate, graded C, in line with other aromatic herbs. How much reaches you depends heavily on form: a stalk bruised in a soup and then removed transfers relatively little, while lemongrass blended into a paste or steeped as a strong tea delivers considerably more.
References
Read the background
Ratings reflect the Triggerbites ingredient database and may vary with portion size and preparation.