The Egyptians cultivated chamomile and dedicated the plant with its golden cones to the sun. Symbolic religious references to chamomile’s holy womanly qualities still exist. In Greek, a variation of chamomile, ‘Mater Cara’ means ‘Beloved Mother.’ The Roman Catholic Church dedicated chamomile to St. Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary. Today, chamomile is valued primarily for its soothing sedative properties and its ability to promote a natural hormone, similar to thyroxin, which has the power to rejuvenate the texture of the hair and skin and is believed to restore the liveliness of youth, both mentally and physically.
Chamomile is a relatively recent herb placed in the emmenagogual class of herbs. Abortifacient and emmenagogual properties are reported from use of Roman chamomile’s flower infusion or essential oil. Nicholas Culpepper, an English herbalist of the 17th century, recorded chamomile’s ability ‘to bring down women’s courses.’ Culpepper may have been speaking of the hot tea used as a steam fumigation or possibly that of the essential oil, which was in common use during his time. The essential oil, distilled from fresh flowers since medieval times, is known to be a uterine stimulant and a treatment for eczema and asthma. Uterine stimulation by chamomile’s essential oil is most likely due to the thujone the essential oil contains. Thujone has been shown to be a uterine stimulant in animals.[195] The hot water extract of dried chamomile flowers is documented as being used as an emmenagogual sitz bath in East Indian Unani medicine.[196] In Germany, the hot water infusion of chamomile flowers is documented in the form of a vaginal douche used to induce abortion.[197]
Gathering: The chamomile flower buds are carefully cut off the mother plant just before they are about to bloom and then dried quickly on stainless steel screen or in a cheesecloth hammock out of direct sunlight. The flowers are turned occasionally as they dry and stored in airtight containers.
Preparation: Chamomile infusion of flowers or essential oil can be used as a sitz bath or fumigation during the first four weeks of pregnancy. Essential oils are extracted by distillation and are very concentrated. Some essential oils can be deadly at a dose of one teaspoon (4 ml)! Essential oils designated for aromatherapy should not be used internally. Chamomile infusion contributes calming qualities when added to a bath. Chamomile infusion with a bit of grated Asian ginger added makes a mildly emmenagogual and carminative tea. Boiling will destroy chamomile’s oil; it should not be boiled.
Words to the Wise: People who are allergic to ragweed, aster, or chrysanthemum should be cautious of chamomile, for it is in the same family. Chamomile contains the uterine contracting and possibly toxic thujone, which can stimulate the heart muscle.
Watch for Signs of Toxicity Specific to Chamomile: Nausea, vomiting, vertigo, convulsions, personality changes, delirium, and hallucinations.
Emmenagogual Chamomile Fumigation: Chamomile infusion or up to five drops of chamomile essential oil may be used in vaginal fumigation or sitz bath to encourage menstruation.
Chaste Tree
The decoction of the [chaste tree] herbe and seed is good against pain and inflammations about the matrix, if women be caused to sit and bathe their privy parts therein; the seed being drunke with Pennyroiall bringeth downe the menses, as it doth also both in a fume and in a pessary. . .
-John Gerarde in General Historie of Plants, 1597
AKA: Five-leaved chaste tree, cut leaf chaste tree, Abraham’s balm, safe tree, wild pepper, monk’s pepper, nirgundi, ching tzu, and huang-jing-zi.
Parts Used: Seeds, roots, twigs, and fruit.
Medicinal Properties: Seeds (oral & suppository use): contraceptive, diuretic, emmenagogue, lactogogue. Fruits (in water): vermifuge, emmenagogue. Leaves (decoction): lactogogue, emmenagogue.
Effects on the Body: Regulates hormones, promotes lactation, and relieves pain and spasms.
Abortifacient Action: Increases prolactin.
Contains: Iridoid glycosides, flavones, flavonoids, diterpenoids, and essential oil.
Description: Ornamental deciduous shrub, up to 25 ft. (7.6 m) in height, native to west Asia and southwest Europe, with aromatic palmate leaves divided into five to six pointed leaflets. Small lilac scented flowers borne in summer followed by red-black fruit.
The ancient Greek physician, Dioscorides, noted that chaste tree “destroys generation as well as provokes menstruation.”[198] Four hundred years after Dioscorides, Hippocrates mentioned that the chaste tree is used to stem excess menstruation, "If blood flows from the womb, let the woman drink dark wine in which the leaves of the chaste tree have been steeped." Like many herbal abortifacients, chaste tree was intertwined in symbology to the earth mother Goddess – linked intimately with the natural cycle of life and death. According to Greek mythology, the great mother goddess, Hera, was born under a chaste tree. The Greek spring fertility festival, Thesmorphoria, was a three-day women-only reenactment of Persephone returning to Demeter from the underworld. During the Thesmorphoria, chaste tree blossoms were used to adorn hair and costumes, and branches of the chaste tree were placed around Demeter’s temple. The branches of chaste tree were made into beds for maidens. In Rome, chaste tree branches were a symbol of chastity carried by the priestesses of Vesta, goddess of the hearth.
Chaste tree has a long history as a hormone regulator, however chaste tree does not contain any plant based hormones. The common names, monk’s pepper and Abraham’s balm, are believed to stem from chaste tree’s use by men as an anti-libido medicine. Modern science has shown that chaste tree reduces the level of male androgens (reducing the male libido) and decreases prolactin levels, which in turn, may increase luteinizing hormone, which triggers increased testosterone levels.[199] Vitex has also been used in Germany for such male complaints as spermatorrhea, prostatitis, orchitis, and sexual neurasthenia.
Chaste tree is known to inhibit implantation if taken in the first week of pregnancy, and it may interfere with ovulation. In 1938, German researcher, Gerhard Madaus found that the leaf, fruit, and bark extract of chaste tree retarded estrus (heat) in female rats; the chaste tree berries were most effective.
Chaste tree has been shown at low doses to have been helpful to women with high prolactin levels and irregular cycles, PMS acne, and corpus luteum insufficiency.[200] Chaste tree berries, in low doses, act on the hypothalamus and pituitary glands by increasing luteinizing hormone (LH) production and mildly inhibiting the release of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH). Low doses of chaste tree reduce estrogen and increase progesterone. In high doses, however, chaste tree berries seem to increase prolactin secretions and seem to have little effect on follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH) estrogens, or progestins. Researchers have found that high prolactin levels in early pregnancy (up to 10 weeks LMP) are a cause of recurrent miscarriage.[201]
Gathering: The top four inches (10 cm) of the stem are gathered during summer. Flowers are gathered along with ripening fruit. Berries are collected in autumn by gently rubbing them loose from the stems.
195
David J. Spoerke Jr.,
196
H.M.A. Razzack, “The Concept of Birth Control in Unani Medicinal Literature,” unpublished manuscript (1980), 64. as cited in Ivan A. Ross,
197
M. Magid and Wenzkowsky, “Illegal Methods of Abortion,”
199
P.G. Merz, C. Gorkow, A. Schrodter, S. Rietbrock, C. Sieder, D. Loew, J.S. Dericks-Tan, and T.D. Taubert, “The Effects of a Special Agnus castus Extract (BP1095E1), on Prolactin Secretion in Healthy Male Subjects,”
200
E. Loch, et al, “Diagnosis and Treatment of Dyshormonal Menstrual Periods in the General Practice,”
201
N. Ando, I. Gorai, and T. Hirabuki.