A new study suggests that drinking peppermint tea can improve long-term and working memory in healthy adults.

For the research, the team randomly allocated a total of 180 participants to take a drink of peppermint tea, chamomile tea or hot water.

They found that participants who took peppermint tea showed significant improvement in long term memory, working memory and alertness.

However, participants who took chamomile tea exhibited slowed memory and attention speed compared to both who took peppermint and hot water.

"It's interesting to see the contrasting effects on mood and cognition of the two different herbal teas. The enhancing and arousing effects of peppermint and the calming/sedative effects of chamomile observed in this study are in keeping with the claimed properties of these herbs and suggest beneficial effects can be drawn from their use," said Mark Moss, researcher at Northumbria University in Britain.

Before the participants consumed their drink they completed questionnaires relating to their mood.

After a twenty minute rest the participants completed tests that assessed their memory and a range of other cognitive functions.

The findings have been presented recently at the British Psychological Society's Annual Conference in Nottingham.