Abstract
An annual herb, found in waste places in north India, Persia, West Asia, Europe, and Australia. Whole plant has a distinctive smell, reminiscent of over-ripe apples. Chamomile has been mentioned by Hippocrates, Galen, and Asclepius, and is widely recognized in Western culture for its medicinal usage. Dioscorides effectively used it to treat periodic fevers. It is rubefacient, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, deobstruent, brain and nerve tonic, aphrodisiac, diuretic, diaphoretic and galactagogue, and rids body of adust humours. Warm infusion of flowers is carminative, used as anthelminth in children, and is useful in hysteria and dysmenorrhea. Its decoction is used as expectorant, emetic and in high fever and jaundice, and as sitz-bath in amenorrhea, and to expel fetus and placenta. More than one million cups of chamomile herbal tea are consumed every day in the world; some people prefer it when it is sweetened with honey. For centuries, country folks have relied on chamomile to cure children’s complaints, and to treat many female disorders. This herb has its cosmetic uses too: as a face wash, the standard infusion clarifies complexion, and as a rinse, lightens fair hair. In southern Europe, chamomile tea is widely used recreationally; in a dying culture of medicinal plants, it was still one of the most commonly used plants in traditional medicine in the northwest of Basque Country (Biscay and Alava) of Iberian Peninsula. It was also one of the most common traditionally used plants for the treatment of neurological and mental disorders in Navarra, Spain. Flower extract, flower oil, flower powder, and flower water are used as fragrance ingredients, and skin-conditioning agents in cosmetic products, and were declared safe by an Expert Panel in 2017. Sesquiterpene lactones, hydroperoxides, and polyphenolic compounds, the most important being the flavonoid glucoside, chamaemeloside, have been identified in the herb. Oral administration of aqueous extract significantly reduced blood glucose of normal and diabetic rats, without affecting basal plasma insulin levels.
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