Superfoods: Chamomile Tea

Chamomile contains 50 flavonoids as its active components, including quercetin, apigenin, and luteolin.³ The flavonoids naringenin and apigenin—have been associated with improved sleep quality.^6,7

Chamomile tea also shows benefits for blood sugar control.⁸

In a single-blind, randomized, controlled clinical trial, 64 people with type II diabetes drank either water or a teaspoon and a half of chamomile tea three times per day (3 grams/150 mL hot water) immediately after meals for eight weeks.⁴ Those drinking the chamomile tea experienced decreased concentrations of HbA1C, serum insulin levels, total cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDL, compared to the control group. Chamomile tea may play a role in a multi-modal strategy to reduce elevated blood sugar levels.

In an animal study, giving chamomile tea to diabetic rats reduced fasting blood glucose, after-meal blood sugar levels, and HbA1C. The improvement in HbA1c was similar to that of controls that received glibenclamide (a prescription medication for diabetes). The researchers concluded that drinking chamomile tea every day could be "potentially useful in hyperglycemia."⁹

Many other studies in the lab and on animals have indicated that chamomile has wide-ranging effects, including anticancer activity² and preventing osteoporosis caused by steroid treatment.¹⁰

References

1. Srivastava JK, Gupta S. Chamomile. In: Watson RR, ed. Foods and Dietary Supplements in the Prevention and Treatment of Disease in Older Adults. San Diego: Academic Press; 2015:171-83.
2. Srivastava JK, Shankar E, Gupta S. Chamomile: A herbal medicine of the past with bright future. Mol Med Rep. 2010 Nov 1;3(6):895-901.
3. Dai YL, Li Y, Wang Q, et al. Chamomile: A Review of Its Traditional Uses, Chemical Constituents, Pharmacological Activities and Quality Control Studies. Molecules. 2022 Dec 23;28(1).
4. Rafraf M, Zemestani M, Asghari-Jafarabadi M. Effectiveness of chamomile tea on glycemic control and serum lipid profile in patients with type 2 diabetes. J Endocrinol Invest. 2015 Feb;38(2):163-70.
5. Chang SM, Chen CH. Effects of an intervention with drinking chamomile tea on sleep quality and depression in sleep disturbed postnatal women: a randomized controlled trial. J Adv Nurs. 2016 Feb;72(2):306-15.
6. Godos J, Ferri R, Castellano S, et al. Specific Dietary (Poly)phenols Are Associated with Sleep Quality in a Cohort of Italian Adults. Nutrients. 2020 Apr 26;12(5).
7. Salehi B, Venditti A, Sharifi-Rad M, et al. The Therapeutic Potential of Apigenin. Int J Mol Sci. 2019 Mar 15;20(6).
8. Akhter S. Low to no cost remedies for the management of diabetes mellitus; global health concern. J Diabetes Metab Disord. 2021 Jun;20(1):951-62.
9. Khan SS, Najam R, Anser H, et al. Chamomile tea: herbal hypoglycemic alternative for conventional medicine. Pak J Pharm Sci. 2014 Sep;27(5 Spec no):1509-14.
10. Raja A, Singh GP, Fadil SA, et al. Prophylactic Anti-Osteoporotic Effect of Matricaria chamomilla L. Flower Using Steroid-Induced Osteoporosis in Rat Model and Molecular Modelling Approaches. Antioxidants (Basel). 2022 Jul 1;11(7).