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.

Widely used in herbal teas for digestive complaints, insomnia, and menstrual cramps. Topically, it is applied for eczema, insect bites, and minor wounds. Also found in baby products due to its soothing effects.

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.

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

Being carried; warmth; rocking; perspiration; gentle motion; open air (sometimes).

Anger; pain; heat; touch; night; teething; coffee; wind; scolding; being spoken to.

• 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

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.

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