Chamomile

[Brewtrog]

I'm growing Roman chamomile at the moment, but have also seen a lot of (what I think is) German chamomile on my walk to work. My question is what parts of the plant are edible and if any parts should be avoided.

[MKG]

I didn't realise there was more than one of 'em. As you can make chamomile wine, I assume that normal chamomile is, generally speaking non-toxic. I also think that it's the German chamomile which is the one which can be found commonly growing wild.

I found an info sheet ...

http://www.thorne.com/altmedrev/.fulltext/13/1/58.pdf

... which implies that the flowers, at least, are perfectly safe - and there are no warnings about the toxicity of other parts of the planr except in ridiculously large doses.

Mike

[Brewtrog]

The reason I'm growing chamomile is for the wine. The vast majority of our garden is brewable (except the toms)
That's what I've been thinking from my research, but I'm still a bit reluctant to try eating some of the leaf to find out.

[RunnerBean]

I have German chamomile in my herb patch, it seeds around everywhere. You can use the flowers for making tea.

[Brewtrog]

I knew the flowers were good for tea on both chamomiles. It's just that if other parts are usable the it increases the harvest.

[Brewtrog]

I finally took the plunge with this and tasted a bit of leaf from the roman chamomile in the garden. Turns out that, even if not toxic, it isn't edible. When I put it in my mouth it had an overpowering taste of perfume (as if I'd squirted a bottle of perfume in my mouth), upon chewing it became very bitter (and not in a nice way like hops). Will possibly try with some german chamomile when I get a chance.