Tucker and co-workers cite Kay et al. This book has been widely used as a source of botanical names by the American herb trade. The unfortunate part of this taxonomic shuffling is that the lay person, herb trader, or research scientist must source information on the plant under at least three different Latin names, depending upon the year of publication. Buried in obscurity for nearly 200 years, the name resurfaced in the mid-1970s and was adopted in volume 4 of Flora Europaea, as well as Hortus Third. Chamaemelum nobile is best known as Roman chamomile, the name by which we will refer to it here.
Roman chamomile is an aromatic, creeping perennial, growing to one foot in height.
Historically, Roman and German chamomiles have been used interchangeably or confused. In the U.S., German chamomile is by far the most widely consumed of the two species. In addition to genetic differences, quality and quantity of essential oil and other plant components, as in most medicinal plants, are dependent upon a wide range of variables such as environmental factors, cultivation practices, plant part, plant age, and postharvest handling. German chamomile has a long tradition as a folk or domestic remedy used for a wide variety of purposes including an external compress or fomentation for sciatica, gout, lumbago, inflammations, rheumatism, and skin ailments. Historically, Roman chamomile has been utilized for similar purposes.