By Carina Magyar in Herbs — Jun 10, 2023

II: Chamomile

How chamomile tea makes some people drowsy.

The bright, ripe chamomile. Photo by Yaroslava Stupnytska / Unsplash

Good morning. Today is duodi, the 22nd of Prairial, Year CCXXXI. We celebrate la camomille, another flower that can lead to drowsiness.

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Chamomile is the go-to chill-out herb that's used in a variety of ways (most notably as a bedtime tea in our house), but one of the neatest applications is the chamomile seat, a corner of the garden that is built up like a throne – usually with a small wall of stones – then planted in the seat with chamomile. Not only is the herb hardy enough to take your tush, but the lush green or blooming white-and-yellow pad makes for a lovely and literally relaxing place to sit after a hard day of gardening, like settling into a giant scented sachet of calm.

Herbal benefits are tricky to measure or verify, and the reason why relates to the underlying reason there's no one-size-fits-all diet plan for, say, losing weight, either. Targeted chemicals in a pharmaceutically manufactured pill may be able to target our bodies in highly specific ways, but food, and its mysterious pathways through all our various organs and systems, is much more variant from person to person. There's a booming subset of organic chemistry known as "neutraceuticals" that's attempting to investigate the dietary chemistry of vegetables, fruits, meats, and other unadulterated foods. And few herbs have been investigated as deeply as chamomile.

II: Chamomile

I: Cornflower

III: Honeysuckle

I: Cornflower

III: Honeysuckle

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