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What is it?

The dried flowers of Chamomile, an annual, wispy plant that grows all over the world. The name Chamomile comes from Greek where it means ‘Earth apple’. Chamomile’s Latin name comes from the word Mater, meaning both mother and womb.

How has it been used?

Chamomile is able to relieve intestinal cramping and at the same time induce relaxation. It can be very good for digestive disturbances from infant colic to adult indigestion and everything in between.

Inhaling the steam from a strong and hot chamomile infusion is an old treatment for hay fever and skin and eye infections have been treated with chamomile compresses and ‘washes’ by many cultures for many centuries.

Strong chamomile teas have been used for both headaches and migraines around the world and Chamomile is considered in European herbal medicine to be one of the most reliable treatments for menstrual cramps.

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Personal experiences

As little as a tsp. of Chamomile tea has successfully relaxed babies whose colic had previously been inconsolable. A cloth soaked in cooled chamomile tea will give an instant balm to the burning of an eye infection.

By the time the cup of strong, hot chamomile tea is finished the bloated, dyspeptic, misery of indigestion, has usually subsided to a mere tender echo of what was there before.

Tight, inflammatory muscles respond immediately to Chamomile if it is used internally as a tea at the same time as externally as a compress.

~ Chamomile tea

The best way to use chamomile is as a tea which can then be drunk or used as a wash or compress. You need time to make a good herbal tea and in the case of Chamomile you need to keep it well covered. Many therapeutic essential oils in Chamomile are released by the hot water into steam but so long as the tea is covered the oils will drop back into the water to be used. Chamomile combines perfectly with Fennel for indigestion and sore eyes, with Cramp bark for menstrual pain or locked muscles, with Lemon balm for restless children and with Skullcap for anxiety and insomnia.

~ Strong Chamomile tea

To make a strong tea, take (per person) 2-3 heaped tsps of fresh, fragrant dried Chamomile flowers, cover with boiling water and leave to steep for at least 10-15 minutes before straining and drinking. Chamomile tea will get bitter when you make it this strong. That bitterness is in itself healing and soothing to inflamed muscles or digestion so do not be put off by it. By the same token you will not interfere with the action of the tea by adding honey and, especially if children are the recipients, I would consider this a fairly necessary step. Honey blends beautifully with chamomile.

~ Super strong chamomile tea

This is for when your system is in a bad way and you need a potent anti-inflammatory but don’t want to use drugs. Do not underestimate how much chamomile can help in these cases; it can be remarkably pain relieving. But it is all about the dose, you have to get enough of it to work.

To make a super strong tea you basically take a small handful of the Chamomile (about 8-10 tsps) place them in a jar with a sealable lid, pour over boiling water (about 600mls would be ideal) seal and cover with a towel. You then leave the tea until the water has completely cooled down and all the essential oils that turned into steam have been released back into the tea as a liquid. Taking sips of this strong tea (it will be very bitter) through the day conveys potent anti-inflammatory and healing benefits.

~ Chamomile compress

Make a tea as above, strong or super-strong depending on how severe a problem is and how large an area that needs to be treated. To make the compress simply soak a flannel or some kind of cloth in the tea after you have strained it off. Lightly squeeze the cloth until it is what is called ‘wringing wet’ (this means that if you squeezed or twisted it at all you would get a lot more liquid out but it will only slowly drip if you just hold it up).

Chamomile compresses are very effective at relieving pain and inflammation.

~ Cold compresses

For a cold compress let the tea cool to room temperature or you can even place it in the refrigerator if you have a very ‘hot’ condition that you want to alleviate. The cool, soaked cloth is placed over the affected areas until the body heat brings the compress back to normal temperature. In this process, a lot of heat and inflammation can be quickly drawn out.

~ Hot compresses

For a hot compress you simply use the tea after it has been freshly made (and is still hot but not burning) the compress is placed over the affected area and then covered with a towel to keep the heat in. This can be taken to the next level by putting a heated wheat bag or a hot water bottle on top of the towel which is covering the compress. In this method deep aches and pains are seen to be reached, the Chamomile and the heat combine to get in and provide some deep relief. When the compress is cooled down to body temperature you are ‘done’ and can take it off.

~ Alternating hot and cold compresses

In this method you use the Chamomile in the hot compress and then simply use cold water from the fridge for the cold compress. Start with the hot compress, place it over your body until the compress cools somwehat, then put the cold compress on with water from the fridge that has been soaked into a cloth. Have the cold compress as cold as you can stand and keep it on just until your body takes the chill out of it. You then need to repeat the hot compress at least once (you can cycle back and forth from hot and cold as often as you like but you have to finish with the hot one)
This method, whilst it is laborious, can be most helpful to shift stuck and stubborn cases of inflammation such as are found in chronic joint conditions.

Excerpt from Felter & Lloyd's Kings Dispensatory from 1898

Chamomile is an important remedy with us, particularly in affections of young children. It has two particular specific fields of action—one upon the nervous system, subduing nervous irritability, and the other upon the gastro-intestinal tract, relieving irritation. Various painful conditions are relieved by matricaria infusion. Among these may be mentioned earache, rheumatism, catarrhal affections of the bowels, ears, nose, and eyes. A matricaria patient is restless, irritable, discontented, and impatient, and, if a child, is only appeased when continually carried. In pregnancy, it relieves nervous twitching, cough, false pains, etc., accompanied by great unrest. Either small or large doses of matricaria are of value in amenorrhoea, with sense of weight and heaviness in the womb, and bloating of the abdomen, accompanied with sudden nervous explosions of irascibility. The infusion, relieves dysmenorrhoea with labor-like pains and tends to prevent the formation of clots. Externally it has been used as a wash for leucorrhoea, mammary abscess and catarrhal conjunctivitis

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