Why Is Chamomile Oil Blue?

Chamomile flowers are white and yellow, so it may come as a surprise that their essential oil can be a striking deep blue.

Even more surprisingly, one of the compounds responsible for this colour is not present in the flower in exactly the same form.

Chamomile contains a natural substance called matricin. During the heat of steam distillation, matricin is transformed into chamazulene, a blue-coloured compound that becomes part of the essential oil.

Chamazulene is not only responsible for the unusual colour. It is also studied for its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, making it one of the characteristic compounds associated with chamomile oil.

So the famous blue colour is actually created during the process of making the essential oil: distillation transforms one of chamomile’s natural compounds into another.