74 
ANTfiEMiS NOBILIS. 
composed of many scales ; the florets of the disk are numerous^ 
funnel-shaped, erect, and divided at the top into five segments ; the 
filaments are five ; anthers united ; the germen is oblong, supporting 
a slender style, crowned with a bifid stigma ; the florets of the ray 
are ligulate, and three-toothed; seeds oblong, naked. 
The Matricaria Chamorailla,wild chamomile, or common fever-few, 
(also a native of Britain), is very similar in its general appearance 
to the Anthemis Nobilis, and is directed for oflicinal use by most of 
the foreign pharmacopeias; but the odour of the former is not so 
fragrant, nor so powerful, nor does it yield so much essential oil as 
the latter; and as the virtues of chamomile chiefly depend upon its 
essential oil, it must be preferable to the Matricaria. 
Sensible and Chemical Properties. Both the flowers 
and leaves of chamomile have a powerful and rather grateful odour ; 
its taste is nauseous and very bitter. Chamomile flowers become 
more grateful by drying, without losing any of their aromatic fla- 
vour ; and the infusion of the dried flowers is much less nauseous 
than the fresh plant. Chamomile gives out its flavour (which resides 
in an essential oil) both to water and alcohol; the distilled water is 
pretty strongly impregnated with it. On distilling chamomile with 
water, a small portion of the essential oil separates and rises to 
the surface ; this oil is of a greenish yellow or blue colour, and of a 
pungent taste, possessing the flavour and odour of the flowers in a 
concentrated degree.* The rectified spirit distilled from off a tinc- 
ture of chamomile, brings over part of the flavour, but leaves a 
considerable portion behind in the extract ; the smell of the spirit is 
not so powerful as the distilled water, but the taste much more so.f 
The infusion changes brown by the addition of sulphate of iron. 
From the analysis of Neumann, the active constituents are an essen-^ 
tial oil and bitter extract. 
Medical Properties and Uses. The flowers of chamomile 
have been long held in much estimation for their tonic and sto- 
machic properties, which are chiefly derived from their bitter prin- 
ciple ; and from the essential oil they contain, is derived their active 
properties as an emmenagogue, antispasmodic, and carminative : 
hence they have been recommended in hysterical affections, colic, 
suppression of the menses, gout, indigestion, intermittent fevers, &c.. 
* Baume obtained from 821bs. of the flowers from 13 to 18 drachms of oil ; but 
from the like quantity of the herb, without the flowers, only half a drachm. See Bergman, 
Mat. Med. p. C95. 
Lewis,^ Mat. Med. p. 221. 
