Chamomile

Healing Properties:

Chamomile is well known for her soothing effect on the body and mind - promoting the feeling of peace and joy.

She contains contain chemicals called flavonoids which significantly contribute to her medicinal properties. With 1-2 cups a day on a regular basis, you will see how she can support and nourish you.

The benefits of chamomile are endless and taken as a potent daily tea can help reduce menstrual pain, help lower blood sugar levels, slow down the progression of osteoporosis, reduce body inflammation, improve digestive health, promote rest and healthy sleeping. It even has ongoing research around how it can protect against cancer.

A natural cream, balm or oil made with chamomile oil can help relieve skin inflammation, wound healing, eczema and hemorrhoids.

One thing I love about Chamomile is that she is a “Plant Physician” acting as both activator and a fertilizer. This means that if you have a plants that are struggling in the garden you can put chamomile close by and the plants may recover. You can also treat plants suffering from transplant shock with a light sprinkle of dried chamomile flowers and water them in with hot water. This will help the plant recover!

Chamomile contains: Volatile oils, sesquiterpenes / matricin, flavonoids, cumarins, up to 10% mucilage / polysaccharides. Chamomile is mineral rich, containing magnesium, potassium, calcium, iron, zinc, iodine and manganese.

History Folklore of Chamomile:

Chamomile has a rich and wonderful history as a spiritual and medicinal herb.

The Egyptians dedicated this flower to their sun god, Ra, worshipping it for its healing properties. Egyptian women used preparations of crushed petals on their skin for well over 2000 years. They also used it in their mummification process.

The Romans and Greeks sipped Chamomile Tea to calm a fever and soothe skin conditions.

The Anglo Saxons included it in their “Nine Sacred Herbs” of the “Lacnunga”, used in herbal medicine for settling the stomach and assisting restful sleep.

Spiritual Properties:

Chamomile helps attract abundance, relaxing your energy to allow you to become receptive. She is the perfect herb to use before any ritual either as a tea or as an inhaled scent to calm the mind, helping you achieve a balanced meditative state. Her gentle energy can help raise your vibration and open you up to receiving love. The addition of Chamomile flowers to your bath can assist with aura cleansing.

Chamomile the Garden Companion

Chamomile is super easy to grow and will fill you garden with delightful blooms bobbing in the sunshine.

Start your seeds indoors for about 4-6 weeks when the frosts are about to finish. Plant the seeds shallow in the soil as they like light to germinate, keeping them moist until they sprout (takes around 7-10 days). Once the seedlings are stronger you can transplant them outdoors.

Be careful to slowly introduce them to the outdoors by transferring them outside to a sheltered spot with indirect light. Leave the outside for a few hours and bring them in for the night until they are used to the varied temperature of day and night. This will help "harden" off their stems ready for the outdoors.

Chamomile loves a sunny location with sandy, well draining soil. Give them plenty of room to grow.

If you leave some of the flowers to seed at the end of the season you will find they will appear next year in the same place!

Harvesting: The harvesting of the flowers will encourage new blooms to flourish. Try to harvest the new flowers first thing in the morning as this is when the flowers are at their most potent.

Drying: Once you have harvested your flowers, line a basket with a muslin cloth. Place your blooms in the cloth and allow them to dry out naturally in a dark, dry place. Give them a little turn each day to ensure even drying. Or you can use a dehydrator to speed up the process. Keep in an airtight jar once they have been dried.