The most positive chamomile effects include sedation and bolstered immunity against infections, while the most negative chamomile effects include rash and possible difficulty breathing. The tranquilizing properties of chamomile allow it to be used to quiet colicky babies and to put to rest those with insomnia and restlessness. People suffering from hyperactivity, attention deficit disorder, and anxiety might also find relaxation and focus through chamomile. The herb’s calming power, however, is not just emotional and mental; physically, it can cool down stomach problems, tissue inflammation, and skin flare-ups like psoriasis.
Travelers gravitate toward chamomile supplements to reduce jet lag and nervous stomachs. Those suffering from a loss of appetite often find their hunger can be revived by ingesting chamomile. Chamomile effects often knock out a range of common cold symptoms. Fever, phlegm, and nasal discharge all typically lessen under the herbal treatment of chamomile. Coughing is also generally reduced.
Chamomile exists in two distinct species that have similar properties. There is the English variety, which is most popular and goes by the Latin name Anthemis nobilis. Matricaria recutita is the German version of chamomile. Amino acids in both species repair and relax muscles, helping to fight contractions and spasms. The nervous system can also be balanced and relaxed by glycine, the primary amino acid in chamomile.
Tea is a common way to reap chamomile effects. Herbal capsules, creams, and tinctures offer other forms of this curing herb. To make a chamomile tea, both blooms and leaves, whether dried or fresh, can be steeped for 10 minutes in hot water. Some studies show that chamomile tea drinkers have high quantities of hippurates in their urine. A hippurate is an after effect of the body breaking down and absorbing phenols, which are plant chemicals that fight bacteria, viruses, and fungi, thereby strengthening the immune system against illness.
External relief is also possible, although ingesting the herb is the more common way to achieve chamomile effects. Mixing the herb in a cream or carrier and applying it to abscesses or other troubled skin conditions can reverse inflammation and swelling. This form of treatment has been used to treat itchy chickenpox and measles.
Burns can often by soothed by the repeated pouring of chamomile tea on the skin or the use of the tea in a compress. Wounds might also heal faster, according to herbalists, due to topical applications of chamomile. Swishing cold chamomile tea in the mouth as a mouthwash can allegedly slow tooth decay and gum disease.