When herbalist Rosalee de la Forêt says chamomile doesn’t get the respect it deserves, she’s speaking from firsthand experience. She once accidentally let chamomile flowers steep too long in water and discovered an exceptionally potent drink for digestive issues. Suddenly, de la Forêt understood she’d been discounting chamomile.
“I always thought it was a cute little herb that’s sold in every coffee shop, but it wasn’t like real herbal medicine,” she told The Epoch Times. “I really got schooled on it. I made a very strong batch of it and felt how dramatic it was and its effects on digestive health.
I fell in love with chamomile and cannot live without it.” Calling herself a skeptic-turned-die-hard lover of chamomile, she now recommends the herb to nearly everyone. Chamomile contains bisabolol, an oil with anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antibacterial, anticancer, antibacterial, and antiseptic properties.
Bisabolol is capable of reducing pepsin, the digestive enzyme that can cause digestive issues. This could make chamomile an alternative treatment for stomach and upper intestinal symptoms, according to the review. Chamomile’s chemical makeup contains many terpenoids, plant compounds that act as antioxidants—meaning they reduces reactive oxygen species that are linked to disease.
Terpenoids are “anticancer, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antiallergic,” according to the review. Published in Chronic Disease Journal in 2023, the stu.