Chamomile’s miniature, daisy-like flowers add color to any herb garden but their real value lies well beyond a charming appearance.

The nutritious flowers of the chamomile plant offer calcium, iron, magnesium, selenium, silicon, tryptophan, vitamins A,C, F and B-complex, and zinc. Chamomile also calms, soothes and heals the nerves by helping to repair and rebuild nerve sheaths.

More nourishing that controlling, and so gentle it is more like a food than a medicine, chamomile has been used effectively for a broad range of ailments concerning the nervous and digestive systems.

Because of its gentleness and rather pleasant taste, chamomile is an excellent herb to use alone or in combination with other herbs. Not just a nice bedtime team chamomile may be used during the day as a mild sedative to calm agitation, hyperactivity, nervousness, hysteria, or irritability in children.

It works by relaxing the smooth muscle lining of the digestive tract, making it a good remedy for colic, indigestion, gas, and spasmodic vomiting. In addition to its sedative, carminative, and antispasmodic properties, chamomile is an anti-inflammatory and antibacterial, and has been used along with other herbs to treat infections, measles, diarrhea, colitis, swellings, rheumatic pain, and rashes.

Chamomile is also useful as a diaphoretic, and can increase sweating and encourage fevers to break, to ultimately reduce body temperature. In addition to breaking fevers, chamomile relieves other symptoms of colds and flus, especially aches and pains.

To make tea, simply put 1-2 teaspoons dried or fresh chamomile flowers in one cup of hot water, cover, and let steep 10-30 minutes, then pour through a small sieve and enjoy. I find it easy to make a quart or more at a time by throwing a small handful into a pot of hot water. Chamomile tea can also be sweetened with a little honey or other natural sweetener. The recommended dose is two to three cups a day for adults, less for children.

While it is more common in the United States to use only the flowers, in Central America, they harvest the top six- to eight-inches and use the stems, leaves, and flowers as a remedy for asthma and other lung conditions.

Chamomile blends well with other herbs to nourish and strengthen the myelin sheaths that cover nerves. One of my favorite tea blends is catnip, chamomile, oatstraw, lemon balm and skullcap. This formula is excellent for calming hyperactive or irritable children and nervous adults, and makes a great bedtime or naptime tea.

Be-Calm, (my name for this tea blend), has been used by nursing mothers to calm colicky babies. After giving some to a friend for her sensitive daughter, I was delighted to hear that when upset, amid her tears, the little girl asks, "Mommy, I need my Be-Calm Tea".

In addition to drinking the tea, you can bathe in it or apply as a fomentation. Remember that the skin is your largest organ and can absorb chamomile’s medicinal. Chamomile makes for an especially nice herbal bath for fussy, irritable babies and is very soothing to the skin.

A quart of chamomile tea added to your baby’s bath water will also soothe sunburns and rashes. For adult baths, add a gallon or more of tea. Chamomile’s antispasmodic and pain-relieving properties make it is effective for a variety of aches and pains, and its anti-inflammatory compounds ease rashes and other skin problems.

To apply the tea as a fomentation, simply soak a cloth (cotton diapers, sections of old sheets, a washcloth etc.) in the tea, lightly wring and lay over the affected (rash, open sore, swelling, etc.) area. Use it as an eyewash or apply a fomentation of the tea to soothe sore eyes. A foot or hand bath is helpful for chronic sweaty feet or hands.

Chamomile tea or an eye-dropper full of the extract, diluted in a quarter glass of water, can be used as a mouth wash for minor mouth and gum infections. To temporarily relieve toothache pain, hold a mouthful of tea in the mouth for a few minutes.

Last, but not least, chamomile tea makes an excellent hair rinse, especially for golden or blonde hair. After rinsing out your shampoo, pour the chamomile tea over your head and hair.

Called the “Plant’s Physician” or the “Doctor for Plants” chamomile seems to have a positive effect on other plants when grown nearby. It tends to invigorate sick plants and promotes healthy growth in nearby plants. To prevent “damping off,” water seedlings with chamomile tea once a week. The tea can also help plants cope with -- and recover from -- transplant shock.

Chamomile is an annual herb, meaning, once it has flowered and produced seeds, it dies. Fast growing, cold tolerant, and easy to grow, chamomile resists transplanting, so it is best to select your garden spot and sow seeds early in the spring.

Chamomile will grow well in poor-to-average, sunny, well-drained soil. Simply scatter the seeds approximately three- to six-inches apart in a three- by three-foot area to grow a nice patch of chamomile. It is good to plant the chamomile rather densely so the plants can support each other. Lightly cover the seeds with potting soil or loose garden soil. The seeds will germinate in a few weeks and the flowers will be ready to harvest late April to July, depending on the weather, and when you sowed the seeds. The flowers are ready to harvest when the petals turn downward.

To harvest the fresh flowers, you can use your hand as a rake (palm up, fingers spread apart). This works great if you want to make a cup or two of tea. For larger harvests, it is much easier to simply snip the top three- to four-inches with scissors. The fresh leaves have similar properties to the flowers, and will add additional benefits to your cup of tea or herbal bath.

If you don’t harvest all the flowers, and let some to scatter their seeds for next year, you will have chamomile in your garden year after year.

Hope that next cup of chamomile tea is better than ever, now that you know just how good it is for you!

Still learning, Rosanna King, Herbalist

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