Photo of Chamomile in its natural flowering form (http://health.howstuffworks.com).
Benefits:
- Boosts immune system and helps fight colds
- Soothes sore throats and hoarseness
- Calming properties combat nervousness and anxiety
- Anti-inflammatory properties sooth rashes and skin irritants
- Relax sore muscles and tight joints including menstrual cramps and stomach and digestive issues.
- Provides asthma relief
- Anticancer activity
- (HerbWisdom.com)
Forms:
- Salve for skin care and wounds
- Vapor for asthma and other breathing issues
- Tea for calming and muscle relaxing effects (most common)
Risks:
The only negative effects of chamomile is a possible allergic reaction. To insure safety, if you have strong allergies with flowers and plants avoiding the use of chamomile is recommended. During a study, 3,851 individuals were tested using chamomile (nih.gov,1996). Of these patients, only 118 (3.1%) experienced an allergic reaction. Further tests revealed that feverfew elicited the most allergic reactions (70.1% of patients) followed by chrysanthemums (63.6%) and tansy (60.8%). Chamomile has been tested to have little to no negatives effects due to allergies, and only effects a small group of people with proven strong allergies.
Active ingredients:
The healing properties come from the volatile oils from the daisy-like flowers. These oils include alpha-bisabolol, alpha-bisabolol oxides A & B, and matricin. This oil can be extracted by crushing the flowers into a powder or heating the petals in water to make tea.
Additional information:
First used in Egypt, Greece, and Rome; chamomile grew throughout the Middle Ages and was turned into a popular remedy. Chamomile is native to countries throughout Europe such as Germany, Egypt, France, Spain, Italy, Morocco, and parts of Eastern Europe. Roman chamomile is a perennial plant that grows in small quantities and can taste bitter and German chamomile which grows up to three feet high and tastes sweeter.
For a recipe click: here.