The Apple-Scented Herb of the Ground

Chamomile is the common name of two related daisy-family plants, the annual German chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) and the perennial Roman chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile), both bearing small white-rayed yellow-centred flowers and a scent often likened to apples, the Greek name khamaimelon means earth-apple. It was a classic strewing herb and lawn plant, and in Egypt its cheering, warming quality led it to be dedicated to the sun. Its long domestic reputation is as a mild, calming plant, an association read from the soothing effect of its warm infusion; that reputation is recorded here as folk history rather than as any medical claim.

Modern pharmacological research has looked specifically at apigenin, a compound concentrated in chamomile flowers that binds to the same brain receptors as anti-anxiety medications in laboratory studies, a genuine avenue of clinical research into the plant's old reputation for calm, though the clinical evidence in humans remains limited and mixed; Germany's Commission E, the regulatory body that evaluates herbal remedies for that country's health authorities, has approved chamomile preparations for certain mild digestive and skin uses, one of relatively few herbs in this family of articles with that specific formal regulatory recognition.