The plant originated in southern and eastern Europe and the Middle East. However, today chamomile is common throughout Europe, North America and Australia.
Chamomile as a medicinal plant
The drug originates mainly from cultivation areas in Argentina, Egypt, Hungary, Bulgaria and increasingly Spain, the Czech Republic and Germany. In large-scale cultivation for medicinal purposes, more than 5,000 tons of chamomile are harvested annually.
Medicinally, the dried flower heads (Matricariae flos), liquid extracts or essential oil extracted from the flowers are used.
Chamomile: typical characteristics
Chamomile is a 1-year-old plant with strongly slit leaves and numerous pretty flower heads that grows about 0.5 m tall. The flower heads bear about 15 white ray florets that initially stick out to the side, but later hang down.
On the inflorescence base, between the white ray florets, sit densely packed yellow tubular florets that bloom one after another and from the bottom up.
Properties of chamomile flowers
The drug consists of the flower heads with yellow tubular flowers surrounded by a ring of white ray florets. The arched inflorescence base is hollow. Because of its yellow flower head and the radiating white ray florets, the Egyptians already revered chamomile as the “flower of the sun god”.
Chamomile flowers spread a characteristic, very aromatic smell. The taste of chamomile flowers is somewhat bitter.
