Calendula Tea vs Chamomile Tea: What Is Documented, and What Is Not

Stand at the tea shelf and calendula and chamomile look like twins: dried yellow and orange flowers from the daisy family, sold for infusions. They are different plants with different paperwork behind them, and neither tea has the clinical backing the packaging implies. We make calendula oil, not tea, and our oil is not for drinking, so what follows is a walk through the decision using the published sources, with a clear note on where our product does not belong.

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Step one: are you allergic to daisy-family plants?

This comes before taste or tradition, because both flowers are Asteraceae (Compositae). The EU herbal monograph for calendula flower lists hypersensitivity to Asteraceae plants as a contraindication (EMA/HMPC, 2018), and EMA's page for chamomile (Matricaria) flower says products must not be used by people allergic to matricaria flowers or other Asteraceae plants (EMA, Matricariae flos). A 2006 review of chamomile tea notes that adverse reactions to chamomile, drunk or applied to skin, have been reported among people with allergies to other daisy-family plants (McKay and Blumberg, Phytother Res, 2006). Allergy specialists add that some people with ragweed or mugwort pollen allergy react to herbal products from related plants, including chamomile and marigold, though the abstract does not quantify how often or name the marigold genus (Preda et al., Medicina, 2024). If that is you, ask an allergist before either tea. Our patch test article covers skin testing, but a cup of tea is not a skin test.

Step two: what is actually behind each tea?

Chamomile has the larger body of work, and it is thinner than the shelf copy suggests. McKay and Blumberg describe animal-model findings for anti-inflammatory and anxiolytic effects but state that human studies are limited and that clinical trials examining the sedative properties of chamomile tea are absent. The EU committee accepts chamomile flower (EMA, Matricariae flos) for minor digestive complaints, colds, and mouth, throat and skin uses on the basis of long-standing use, not clinical trials, and generally for adults and adolescents over 12.

Calendula tea is documented even less as a drink. The EU monograph's infusion entry is 1-2 g of flower in 150 ml of water, and its stated use is a still-warm infusion for impregnated skin dressings, not a beverage. Memorial Sloan Kettering says it is generally safe to use calendula in food and tea, but to talk with a healthcare provider before taking calendula supplements (MSK, About Herbs: Calendula). US food regulations list calendula among spices and natural flavorings generally recognized as safe for their intended use (21 CFR 182.10), which is a flavoring status, not a statement about tea as a remedy. So for either flower, a cup is a flavored drink with a traditional background, and nothing in the sources we read supports a promised effect.

Step three: taste, where we decline to rank

Every comparison article ranks flavor. We found no sensory panel or published tasting data for either tea, and our own experience is with the flower, the drying and the oil, not with brewed tea, so we will not tell you which tastes better. Brew a small amount of each and decide.

Step four: check what you are buying

The same questions apply to a bag of dried flowers as to a bottle of oil. First, the Latin name: Calendula officinalis is not the "marigold" that supplies commercial lutein, which is normally Tagetes, a different genus (Kurniawan et al., Foods, 2026). Second, the plant part. The European Pharmacopoeia describes calendula flower as dried, fully opened flowers detached from the receptacle, of cultivated double-flowered varieties (EMA/HMPC, 2008, quoting the Ph. Eur.). When we buy dried flowers for our oil, we start from sound whole-dried heads and separate the petals by hand rather than using broken florets; the same logic suggests looking for whole petals in a tea. In one cultivar, petals held about 13 times the carotenoid concentration of the tubular centre florets (Pintea et al., 2003), which is a reason a petal-rich product and a floret-heavy one are not the same thing. Third, moisture: mycotoxin occurrence in herbs varies with storage conditions, moisture content and handling (Kanabus et al., Toxins, 2025), so dried, sealed, dated packaging is the minimum.

Step five: pregnancy, breastfeeding, children and medication

For calendula, the EU monograph says safety in pregnancy and breastfeeding has not been established and use is not recommended, and Memorial Sloan Kettering advises against taking calendula in either situation. The NIH LactMed entry states no information is available on oral calendula during breastfeeding (LactMed, Calendula). We did not find a comparable sourced statement for chamomile tea in pregnancy, so we say nothing about it beyond asking your OB/GYN or midwife. For anyone on prescription medication, a pharmacist can check a herbal product against it; MSK notes herbal supplements can affect how other medications work.

Where a tea and our oil differ, and why it matters

A tea and an oil pull different compounds out of the same flower. Calendula's polysaccharides and saponins are water-soluble (the EU assessment report lists polysaccharides up to 15% and saponins 2-10% of the flower), while the pigments and the faradiol esters are fat-soluble and are found in the flower heads, mostly the petals (Golubova et al., Nat Commun, 2025). Reasoning from solubility, the practical consequence is that a tea carries the water-soluble fraction and an oil carries the fat-soluble one. That is an inference: we found no measurement of either compound in either preparation. It is also why studies of aqueous extracts say little about an oil, and vice versa.

The same point means you should never swap them. Our oil is made for skin and is not meant to be swallowed, and a tea steeped from flowers is not a substitute for it on skin. For the skin side of this comparison, including the allergy data, see the calendula and chamomile skin article and, for the oils, calendula oil versus chamomile oil. If you want to dry your own flowers, our drying guide applies to either use.

Short version

If skin is the real goal, our calendula oil is the product for it; for the teacup, buy whole dried petals of Calendula officinalis from a seller who dates the package.

Calendula oil bottle

Calendula Oil

Nature's Golden Botanical, bottled: small-batch calendula oil in sizes from 0.5 oz to bulk.

From $13.99

Shop Calendula Oil →

Sources & Further Reading