True chamomile is a valuable medicinal herb. For the successful use of chamomile, however, there are a few things to consider when harvesting.
Anyone who grows chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) in the garden can marvel at the beautiful daisy flowers just a few months after sowing. To use them for medicinal purposes, wait until the flower is in full bloom - then it's time to harvest the chamomile. Here you can find out how best to harvest chamomile, how to dry it and how to preserve it. We also show what you need to consider when collecting chamomile in nature.
Harvest camomile
In order to find the right time to harvest the coveted chamomile flowers, you can use their stage of development as a guide. When about two-thirds of the conspicuous yellow tubular flowers on the arched base of the flower have blossomed, the chamomile flowers are ideal for harvesting. Once the bud of the entire inflorescence has opened, it takes about three to five days for the flower to reach this stage of development, depending on the weather.
When can chamomile be harvested? The chamomile harvest time coincides with the flowering time, i.e. between June and September. Not only the flower determines when you should harvest the chamomile, the time of day and the weather also play a role. The best time to harvest chamomile flowers is on a sunny day without rain around midday. Because then the flowers are fully open and the essential oil content is highest.
It is easy to harvest by pinching off the flowers on the stem just below the inflorescence. Of course, in the commercial cultivation of this coveted medicinal herb, it is not harvested by hand. Specially designed combine harvesters are available here, with which the plants can be mechanically harvested up to three times during the flowering period. In general, care should be taken to treat the chamomile flowers as gently as possible. They should be handled carefully and little during harvesting and never washed afterwards. All of that would be unnecessary stresswould lead to a negative conversion of the valuable components of chamomile.
Since there are different types and varieties of chamomile and the possibility of confusion, certain characteristics must be observed when harvesting outside of your own garden. If you now want to harvest chamomile in the wild, the herb should have the following characteristics:
- Distinctly arched base with many yellow tubular flowers
- The cross section shows that the base of the flower is hollow from the inside
- Up to 50 cm tall plant
- The characteristic smell of camomile is produced when you grind any part of the plant
If all of these characteristics are met, you can be sure that it is real camomile. If you plant the chamomile in your own garden, there is usually no risk of confusion. The extension is possible without much difficulty.
Drying and storing chamomile
It is important to dry the camomile to preserve it. During storage, too, it is important to preserve the ingredients with the best possible result. Therefore, the flowers of the real chamomile should be dried immediately after harvesting. This is best done in a dry, dark room at temperatures of 21 to 27°C. The drying time is then about two weeks. For impatient people who want to speed up drying, for example in the oven, it is advisable not to choose a temperature of around 30 °C that is too high. Because too much heat also causes a disadvantageous degradation of the healing active ingredients of real chamomile during dry preservation. A wooden spoon should be stuck in the oven door so that the moisture can escape and it doesn't get too hot. Once dried properly and gently, buds can be stored in an airtight container for up to a year without sacrificing potency.
At a glance: How to properly dry chamomile
- Dry the chamomile flowers immediately after harvest
- Spread out on newspaper
- A dry, dark room at 21 - 27 °C is ideal
- A faster drying can be achieved in the oven at the lowest temperature of about 30 °C
- Keep a wooden spoon in the oven door to allow heat and moisture to escape
- After drying, seal the storage container airtight
It is also possible to freeze the camomile to preserve it. This is quicker than drying the buds. If left frozen and not thawed in between, the frozen buds will last up to six months. However, frozen chamomile is less suitable for making tea than dried chamomile.
Why is chamomile actually so he althy? In our special article you will find interesting facts about the effects and uses of chamomile.