5d • Essential Oils
German Chamomile Chemotypes
Did you know that German Chamomile (Matricaria recutita) essential oil has various chemotypes?
Often when I talk with my fellow Aromatherapy Students on German Chamomile, they are unaware that this essential oil has various chemotypes and as a result, each specific chemotype is more suited for one therapeutic action over another.
The chemotypes are produced based on the geographical and environmental area in which the chamomile is grown.
So what are these chemotypes?
According to Robert Tisserand and Rodney Young in the 2nd Edition of Essential Oil Safety page 242 to 245, there are six chemotypes of Chamomile Blue.
These are:
- α-Bisabolol Oxide A (Egyptian, German, Dutch)
- α-Bisabolol Oxide A / E-β-Farnesene (Egypt)
- α-Bisabolol Oxide A / α-Bisabolol Oxide B (Brazil)
- Farnesene / Chamazulene (Bulgarian)
- α-Bisabolol / E-β-Farnesene (Finnish
- α-Bisabolol Oxide A / Chamazulene (German)
Even though Tisserand and Young have written about six chemotypes, there is another chemotype I have come across.
I purchased a German Chamomile from the company Florihana
According to Florihana, the batch that I purchased, FLE015H191224F/2, is steam distilled from the wild-harvested flowering tops grown in France.
Looking at the batch-specific GC/MS that Florihana provides (see below), the percentage ranges for the six chemotypes listed above and in the book do not match what the Florihana GC/MS shows.
Based on the GC/MS, I believe the batch of German Chamomile I have is an E-β-Farnesene (France) chemotype, as the GC/MS shows it has 42.478% of this constituent, the highest constituent identified.
The amount of α-Bisabolol is 2.518%, its Farnesene is non-existent, and its Chamazulene is at 2.570%.
When looking at Tisserand's 6 Chemotypes, specifically those with E-β-Farnesene, the percentage ranges for the chemical constituents and secondary constituents that make up the chemotype are nowhere near as close as shown in bold below:
- α-Bisabolol Oxide A (38.7%) / E-β-Farnesene (25.7%)
- Farnesene (27.7%) / Chamazulene (17.6%)
- α-Bisabolol (32.4 - 60.1%) / E-β-Farnesene (11.6 - 43.8%)
As was pointed out to me by one of Aromaheads' Mentors, my batch of E-β-Farnesene German Chamomile e.o seems to be more beneficial in skin care/wound healing and perhaps more advantageous in muscular pains/spasms due to its high esters.
I would love to hear from members of this server the following:
- Did you know that German Chamomile has various Chemotypes?
- What Chemotype of German Chamomile have your/do you use?
- What would you use the specific chemotype of German Chamomile for?
- Are there any chemotypes not mentioned in this post of German Chamomile you have come across and used?
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German Chamomile Chemotypes
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