Chamomilla

Prepared from the fresh flowering plant of Matricaria chamomilla, harvested before full bloom. It is rich in essential oils such as chamazulene and α-bisabolol, which are known for their anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, and sedative properties.

First proved by Samuel Hahnemann, published in Materia Medica Pura. It became quickly recognised for its deep impact on nerve sensitivity and emotional reactivity, especially in children.

Chamomilla typifies the raw, oversensitive temperament. It is especially suited for children (and adults) whose pain is extreme and behaviour is angry, inconsolable, and demanding. Teething, earaches, and digestive pain are often accompanied by screaming and refusal of comfort — unless carried constantly.

Nervous system; emotions and pain perception; mucous membranes (especially gastrointestinal); ears; teeth and gums; genitals; lungs.

Chamomilla is best known for intense irritability, oversensitivity, and emotional volatility, especially in children. The child is peevish, angry, wants things and throws them away once given. Kent wrote, “Nothing pleases, nothing satisfies.” Hering describes the patient as “snappish, uncivil, spiteful.” Mental and emotional symptoms often arise from anger, pain, or teething. The patient is inconsolable unless carried — a keynote. Clarke noted it as the chief remedy for ailments caused by anger, especially when accompanied by pain or restlessness. Adults may become quarrelsome, irritable, and intolerant of contradiction.

Restless sleep; wakes frequently. Clarke and Hering reported children screaming out, grinding teeth, or tossing in bed. Sleep is disturbed by pain or dreams. Infants sleep only when carried.

Dreams of fire, danger, or quarrels. Clarke noted anxious dreams that wake the patient, or visions upon closing the eyes. May relive emotional distress during sleep.

Marked oversensitivity to pain, noise, odours, and emotional disturbance. Kent and Clarke highlighted that pains are intolerable and cause disproportionate behaviour. Warmth generally ameliorates; cold, wind, or touch aggravates. The patient is restless, angry, hot, and demanding — especially children.

Fever from teething, colic, or emotional upset. One-sided heat, especially of the face. Clarke mentioned thirstlessness, high heat without much perspiration, and agitation.

Chill followed by heat, with red cheeks. Clarke described a sequence of chills, flushes of heat, then sweat. Sweat may be sour-smelling, especially on covered parts.

Heavy, pressing headaches, especially during menstruation or anger. Pain may be one-sided and associated with a sensation of fullness or heat. Hering recorded congestion to the head with redness and puffiness of the face. In children, the head may be hot and sweaty, especially on one side.

Red, inflamed, smarting eyes with tearing and photophobia. Eyelids stick together. Clarke noted spasmodic twitching of the lids and oversensitivity to light. Worse from wind and emotional upset.

Chamomilla is a primary remedy for teething-associated otitis media. Severe earache with screaming and rubbing of the ears. Clarke recorded throbbing and stitching pains, worse at night. Child may press head against pillow or caregiver’s shoulder for relief.

Coryza with acrid discharge and obstruction. Clarke mentioned sneezing and catarrhal inflammation aggravated by cold wind. Children may breathe with the mouth open due to nasal blockage.

Face may be red on one cheek and pale on the other — a classic keynote. Hering described twitching of facial muscles, heat, and burning, especially in teething children. Expression may be irritable or distressed.

Dryness of mouth, with sour or bitter taste. Clarke noted that during dentition, gums are hot, tender, and swollen. Tongue may be coated white or yellow. Saliva may be copious, especially in infants.

A leading teething remedy. Clarke wrote of children grinding their teeth during sleep, crying, or biting everything. Pain may radiate to the ears or cheeks and is often worse at night. Gum inflammation and profuse salivation are common.

Dryness and roughness, sometimes with burning or a feeling of swelling. Clarke documented a sensation of a plug or obstruction, especially after anger or in catarrhal conditions.

Dry, irritating cough, worse at night and in bed. Clarke noted oppression, stitching pains, and spasmodic coughs provoked by anger or teething. Breathing may be quickened during emotional episodes.

Palpitations from excitement or irritation. Clarke wrote of trembling in the chest, with anxiety, especially in oversensitive children or women during menses.

Rapid, shallow breathing, often aggravated by pain or emotion. Clarke observed asthmatic constriction after anger, with sighing or restlessness.

Aversion to warm drinks; vomiting after anger or rich food. Clarke described bitter regurgitation and nausea with colic. Infants may vomit curdled milk or show distension after feeding.

Flatulent colic with arching of the back and drawing up of the legs. Hering described crampy, twisting pains that are intolerable, worse at night or from anger. Distension is frequent. Better from warmth and being carried.

Frequent, small, hot, offensive stools, especially in children during teething. Clarke described green, slimy, “rotten egg”-smelling diarrhoea. The child is often irritable before, during, and after stool.

Scanty, hot urine; dark and offensive. Clarke noted pain during urination, involuntary urination in children, and increased urgency when upset.

Desire for cold drinks; aversion to coffee and warm fluids. Clarke observed irritability and digestive upset after milk, fat, or rich foods.

Drawing, cramping pains in the testicles. Kent mentioned sexual weakness following anger or emotional upset. Less commonly used for male-specific disorders unless strongly indicated.

Menstrual colic with labour-like pains, extending down the thighs. Clarke described intolerable dysmenorrhoea with restlessness and anger. Discharges are hot, excoriating, and offensive. Sensitive vulva with oversensitivity to touch.

Drawing pain in the back and neck. Clarke and Hering mentioned stiffness of the cervical spine and lumbago-like pain in anger-sensitive individuals. Infants may arch the back during colic episodes.

Twitching, jerking, and restlessness. Children may kick off the covers or flail their limbs. Clarke recorded burning soles, worse at night, and oversensitive skin. Limbs may tremble or feel numb.

Eruptions from anger or teething. Urticaria, red patches, or hot swellings may appear. Clarke noted vesicular eruptions and itching aggravated by warmth. Skin is sensitive to cold wind.

• Belladonna – Both have red, hot faces and sensitivity, but Belladonna is more congestive and violent, with throbbing and fear; Chamomilla is more irritable and whiny, with intolerable pain and demands.
• Pulsatilla – Both used for children and women’s complaints; Pulsatilla is gentle, yielding, weepy and chilly, while Chamomilla is irritable, angry, hot and thirsty.
• Coffea cruda – Both have hypersensitivity to pain, but Coffea is more euphoric and sleepless from joy or excitement, while Chamomilla is angry, impatient, and wants to be left alone.
• Nux vomica – Irritability is shared, but Nux is ambitious, business-minded, and chilly with digestive upset; Chamomilla is emotionally reactive, worse from anger and pain.
• Magnesia phosphorica – Colic and cramps improved by warmth; however, Mag-phos is gentler, with less mental agitation, while Chamomilla has the violent anger and restlessness.

• Complementary: Belladonna, Calcarea carbonica
• Antidotes: Aconitum, Nux vomica
• Inimical: Coffea cruda
• Follows Well: Aconite, Pulsatilla
• Precedes Well: Sulphur, Calcarea phosphorica

A first-line remedy for teething, infant colic, earaches, and emotional agitation after anger. Useful in women’s health, especially dysmenorrhoea with irritability. Rapid response in 30C or 200C in acute situations.

Mind

• Anger, children, in
• Anger, pain, from
• Demands, many things, throws away
• Irritability, pain, from
• Sensitive, pain, to
• Weeping, children, in
• Inconsolable, children
• Aversion, being spoken to

Teeth

• Dentition, difficult
• Dentition, diarrhoea, during
• Dentition, cough, during
• Dentition, fever, during
• Dentition, convulsions, during

Stomach & Abdomen

• Colic, infants, in
• Flatulence, children, in
• Vomiting, anger, from
• Pain, cramping, night, at
• Pain, bending double, amel.
• Pain, carrying, amel.
• Pain, rocking, amel.

Ear

• Otitis media, dentition, during
• Pain, stitching, night, at
• Pain, children, in
• Pain, carried, amel.

Sleep

• Sleep, disturbed, pain, from
• Sleep, must be carried to sleep
• Sleep, crying, during
• Sleep, children, in, difficult

General

• Pain, unbearable
• Pain, oversensitive to
• Complaints, anger, from
• Carrying, amel.
• Rocking, amel.
• Touch, agg.
• Warmth, amel.

Samuel Hahnemann – Materia Medica Pura
James Tyler Kent – Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica
John Henry Clarke – Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica
Constantine Hering – Guiding Symptoms of Our Materia Medica
William Boericke – Pocket Manual of Materia Medica