CHAMOMILE
I think the first drug I ever took
in my life was this one right here, Chamomile. It was my mother's
remedy for virtually everything. Couldn't sleep at night, drink chamomile
tea. Nervous or anxious, chamomile tea. Upset stomach, chamomile tea.
Skin rash, eye inflamation, chamomile poultice. We called it Hungarian
Chamomile. Of course that's because we were in Hungary. Germans call
it German chamomile, audaciously they say "Genuine Chamomile".
I like to think Hungararian is as genuine as any other chamomile.
Well what's in there? Could these
properties be real? Modern chemistry tells us that there's a whole
slew of potentially active ingredients. One for example, Bisabolol
at least in the laboratory has anti-inflammatoiry properties, anti-bacterial
properties and anti-spasmodic properties. But the problem as with
any of the natural products like this is the dose. We made the tea
out of the dried flowers, well how many of the flowers are we going
to use? 2 spoonfuls, 3 spoonfuls, how much water are we going to use?
What is the temperature of the water? All of those are going to determine
the potential physiological properties of this beverage.
These days there are even products
out there which have formulated chamomile into creams and into lotions
and they make all kinds of claims in terms of healing properties.
You know what? Those claims kind of make me sick. They make tense
in the stomach, they make me anxious. You know what I do when that
happens? I take my mother's advice, and I have a nice cup of soothing
chamomile.
