CHAMOMILE
Chamaemelum nobile
COMMON NAMES: German chamomile, garden chamomile, ground apple, pinheads.
FEATURES: The favored chamomile comes from southern Europe and is officially known as Anthemis
nobilis (Roman chamomile), possessing medicinal qualities superior to ours.
This yellow or whitish, small, daisylike perennial, with its strong fibrous root and pale green, thread-
shaped leaflets, has a very bitter taste, with the strong aromatic smell of the apple. It is interesting to note
that the name chamomile is derived from the Greek, meaning “ground apple.”
MEDICINAL PARTS: Flowers, herb.
SOLVENTS: Water, alcohol.
BODILY INFLUENCE: Stomachic, antispasmodic, tonic stimulant (volatile oil), carminative, diaphoretic,
nervine, emmenagogue, sedative.
USES: Chamomile is one of the widely known herbs. Perhaps its livelihood is established through its
early use in childhood ailments such as colds, infantile convulsions, stomach pains, colic, earache,
restlessness, measles, etc. If children were treated with chamomile today, we might have fewer of the
accumulative diseases that trouble us in later years.
When given warm, chamomile will favor perspiration and soften the skin. The cold infusion acts as a
tonic and is more suitable for stomach difficulties, and as a drink during convalescence from febrile
disease, dyspepsia, all causes of weak or irritable stomach, intermittent and typhoid fever. Take 2–3
tablespoonfuls, or cupfuls, adjusted according to age, two or three times a day.
Syrup made of the juice of chamomile, using the white flowers (fresh or dried) with a good white wine,
is a tonic for jaundice and dropsy. Old-fashioned but worth remembering for hysterical and nervous
affections in women, will promote menstrual flow, relieve dysmenorrhic spasms, and promote the menses
when delay is due to exposure to colds; for uterine spasms or nervous tension, bilious headache, and aid
to digestion. A specific for uterus pains of mother at nursing time.
EXTERNALLY: The flower of chamomile, beaten and made into oil, will comfort pain of liver and spleen;
at the same time drink the tea of the fresh or dried herb. Culpeper states: “A stone that hath been taken out
of the body of man, being wrapped in Chamomile, will in time dissolve, and in a little too.”