Anthemis nobilis

Common Name: Chamomile flower

Usage: nervous dyspepsia, nervous excitement, pain and inflammation, visceral overactivity; excellent for children complaints.
Article: Chamomile [aka Matricaria chamomilla]
Chamomile was so common and in such widespread use that old herbal books said that "it is but lost in time and labour to describe it." Unfortunately, that is no longer the case today. In fact, the government of Canada, much to its discredit, has made several attempts to ban the use of this herb outright.
My little girl, aged three, gets read to her an old nursery ditty, written and published by Beatrix Potter, long before the age of Walt Disney-MacDonalds multi-media marketing, called the Tale of Peter Rabbit. In this tale Peter Rabbit catches a cold and is given chamomile tea, "One table-spoonful to be taken at bed-time. But Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail had bread and milk and blackberries for supper."
It is illegal in this day and age to suggest to anyone that chamomile tea and an empty stomach is an excellent approach to throwing off colds, flu, and earache for young and old alike. One, these days, can only advise to go see a
doctor (although I don't understand why this bit of medical advice is not in itself illegal) for a next to useless and potentially harmful chemical preparation.
Chamomile is that beautiful little, yellow-buttoned flower with tiny white petals that grows quietly out of lawns, roadways, and gardens. Its leaves are fern-like and its downy stem delicate. The idyl rich in England strive to make soft, billowy chamomile lawns where fragrant apple-like scents blossom upwards when walked on. Here in North America the herb is persecuted as a noxious weed which dares to break the regimented comformity of all-grass lawns so sought after by those immersed within a consumption culture.
Grieves Herbal states that chamomile is "wonderfully soothing, sedative and absolutely harmless. It is considered a preventative and the sole certain remedy for nightmare."
Chamomile can be used to good benefit in all manner of stress related illness. It is particularly useful in digestive upset and headache, both of which often have stressful components. Not only will chamomile relax nerves but it also relaxes muscles which further eases cases of colic, poor digestion, and upset stomach.
Chamomile has a reputation for tissue healing. This aspect allows it to be used in inflammatory conditions and for wound healing. In fact, chamomile is appreciably antiseptic in action both externally and internally. Those with ulcerative conditions should benefit greatly by the Chamomile Tea habit.
The Latin name for chamomile, Matricaria, means mother or womb. No small wonder that chamomile has a long history of use for female conditions involving tension, spasm, or pain. It is used in anorexia nervosa, vomiting in pregnancy,
mastitis, and related hysteria conditions. Plants often have secret properties that defy scientific copying and synthesizing. Chamomile seems to have preserved her many virtues despite great scientific efforts to locate and patent for profit hinted-at constituent ingredients.
More and more uses of chamomile can attest to the efficacy of this simple herb. Science is beginning to embarrassingly look at this slight herb as a great reliever of asthma and allergy. Indeed, even at its peculiar property of reducing the potential of anaphylactic shock. For years the medicos have bad-mouthed chamomile as a potential allergen because the part used herbally is
the head of a flower. Anything is fair in their efforts to win the doctor-controlled chemical drug vs people-controlled natural herb war. They have no shame.
No mother of a teething infant, no stressed employee, no carbohydrate addict, no person of poor sleeping habit should suffer a lack of knowledge or access to this simple herb of the field.
There are no longer nursery stories written of chamomile. There are no modern herbals which declare that all are familiar with the benefits of chamomile. The frightening vision of a corporate world serving up extracts in a
pill or bottle looms on the horizon.
Sow a chamomile lawn. Drink a nicely flavoured lemon balm / chamomile tea. Resist corporate-controlled health care. Democratize the health system. Preserve nature and re-assert one's right to choice in health care.
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Purposes:   (See also Disease: Signs & Symptoms)

Used In:    (See Formulas)

Mother's Milk                                                
Nerve Syrup                                                    
Sandy's Laxative Tea                                  

Properties:   

Anti-Allergy                          
Antiseptic                              
Anti-Spasmotic                      
Carminative                            
Healing Agent                        
Stomachic                                
Tonic                                        

Contraindication(s):   

Constituents:   

Materia Medica:    (See Materia Medica.)