Chamomile tea
Chamomile tea is a fragrant infusion of fresh or dried chamomile flowers. Since early Egyptian times, it is used as a traditional strewing herb. It is one of the nine sacred herbs named in the Anglo-Saxon medical texts and prayers, and praised as "plants' physician" for its healing abilities.
The herb belongs to the Asteraceae (daisy) family of flowering plants, which emit apple-like aroma. Flowers handpicked particularly during early morning hours for making herbal tea.
There are several varieties of chamomile grown naturally in the wild, under temperate climates of Northern Hemisphere. However, the two most popular varieties are cultivated for their flowers and other herbal parts are German Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) and Roman Chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile).
German (blue) chamomile is an aromatic annual with branched stems up to 18 inches in height. Its stems are hairless, slender and bear small pleasantly fragrant white florets around the prominent orange-yellow disc. The disc (receptacle) is hollow and becomes conical as the flower matures.
Roman Chamomile is a vigorous hairy creeping perennial, up to 18 inches, with ferny leaves. Its flowers appear similar to the German chamomile but little larger featuring solid receptacle with sweet, fruity, apple-scented florets.
For cultivation, sows seeds in spring in fertile, well-drained light soil. Blooms can be ready for harvest by summer. Flowers for essential oil and teas collected as petals, which begin to reflex in the sun, and dried rapidly in shade.
Health benefits of chamomile tea
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Chamomile is one of the popular flower herbal teas consumed around the world, especially in Europe. Ancient Greeks used it to make wreaths and garlands who firmly believed it as a symbol of peace, harmony, and happiness.
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Chamomile flowers carry several active chemical substances such as chamazulene, bisabolol, apigenin, and luteolin, etc. The flower extracts and the essential oil are therefore the ingredients of several traditional herbal remedies.
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The flavonoids are mainly of apigenin with smaller amounts of luteolin and quercetin. Together, these compounds are known to work as anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties.
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The constituents in chamomile tea or tisane have refreshingly soothing effects on the nervous system, reduce nervous irritability, and induce calm and mildly sedative effect.
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Its active ingredients also help stimulating the appetite and cleansing the blood.
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Medicinally, the extraction obtained from both varieties of chamomile herbal parts used for reducing skin inflammation, and erythemotous lesions.
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Quercetin in the infusion, in fact, protects the skin from sunlight injuries.
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The herb carries very small amounts of minerals like iron, calcium, potassium, manganese, copper, and zinc.