Chamomile is an ancient herb, well known for its natural health benefits. People use chamomile tea for its varied benefits and as a sleep aid. Chamomile tea bags are easily available on many popular online shopping sites. This is mostly foundin the dietary or food supplement sections. Do check the FSSAI license provided on the product pack to ensure quality during online shopping.

The relationship of human health and plants has been known from many years. Herbs play an important role in traditional and modern medicine due to their natural slow action with negligible side effects. Chamomile flowers have various benefits in conditions such as stomach and intestinal upset, stress, sleep deficit, skin eruptions and aggravations and mouth ulcers. In fact, early Egyptians used to dedicate the chamomile herb to their sun god, Ra.

Chamomile tea or decoction has a long history of documented use, I am mentioning below some famous old cures that were used by knowledgeable old people:

• Hippocrates (Greek physician), wrote about chamomile’s abilities to provide benefits in reducing fever conditions.
• Dioscorides and Galen (Greek physician and botanist) used it for bladder, kidney, and liver disorders.
• Hildegard of Bingen (protecting battle-maid) prescribed it to ease gynecological problems, relieve intestinal diseases and as a sleep aid.
• Chamomile was very famous among Egyptians women. They used it in their cosmetics as a skin rinse, especially during bad weather. They also drank chamomile tea as a post dinner tea for promoting sleep.

Technically, active ingredients of chamomile are 0.24%–1.9% volatile oil, which is exposed to the environment by steam distillation. According to a review article published in the Journal of Molecular Medicine Report by Janmajai 2010, Chamomile flower’s components of the essential oils are the terpenoids α-bisabolol. The other major components are phenolic compounds, flavonoids apigenin, and quercetin etc. These essential oils are responsible for all the benefits of Chamomile tea, especially for its sleep promoting property.

With the above details, you can easily understand the health benefits of Chamomile flowers. Using Chamomile tea or flowers can add quality to one’s everyday dietary requirement. Natural dry Chamomile flowers contain 1.2% of apigenin, which is one of the most effective bioactive agents. Therefore, drinking Chamomile tea is the healthiest way of availing all the benefits of these flowers.

Presently, chamomile tea is available in both forms – as natural loose flowers and as tea bags. People are usually confused about which is better among the loose herbal flowers and tea bags. Usually, many people prefer tea bags without realizing the in depth information about infusion. As a dietician, I recommend the best form is natural loose flower of Chamomile because tea bags may contain flower powder, which is either pure or may be blended with other materials.Tea bags lack all the nutritional portion of the chamomile flowers, which means that there may be escaping of essential oil in tea bags. The natural whole flower in loose Chamomile tea has a larger surface area, which provides more area for the essential oils to make the tea flavorful, aromatic and provides the optimum amount of the main active ingredients. From a dietician’s point of view, I always recommend Natural Chamomile Flower Herb by BestSource Nutrition, which is also FSSAI certified.

Presently chamomile herb is available everywhere, thanks to the online market place. The health market is changing, and the online market place has become the primary route for consumers to discover online health tips as well as natural dietary or food supplements range. Being a dietician, I personally found the online herbal market a good place for buying supplements from known and trusted brand. That is why I always tell my clients that while you do online purchasing of dietary and food supplements, check that the product has an FSSAI license and whether the ingredients are natural and are clearly mentioned. FSSAI is the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India and the FSSAI license is compulsory for dietary and food supplements. That is why my first choice for dietary and food supplements is BestSource Nutrition.

So do steep a cup of BestSource chamomile tea to avail multiple health benefits and get a good night’s sleep as well as a glowing complexion!