Chamomile tea has a long history of use for settling an upset stomach, and there is reasonable evidence that it can help with nausea, though it works better in some situations than others. The tea contains natural compounds that reduce muscle spasms in the digestive tract and lower inflammation, both of which contribute to that queasy feeling. It’s not a guaranteed fix, but for mild to moderate nausea, it’s a safe and accessible option worth trying.
How Chamomile Calms Your Stomach
Chamomile works on nausea through a few different pathways. The most important is its antispasmodic effect: it relaxes the smooth muscle lining your stomach and intestines. When those muscles are contracting irregularly (a common trigger for nausea), chamomile helps them settle down. This is why it has traditionally been used for a range of digestive complaints, from indigestion and gas to motion sickness and vomiting.
Two compounds in chamomile do most of the heavy lifting. One, called bisabolol, reduces levels of pepsin, a digestive enzyme, without changing your stomach acid’s pH. This makes it particularly useful for upper stomach irritation. The other, chamazulene, is a potent anti-inflammatory that also acts as an antioxidant. Together, they soothe the stomach lining while calming the muscular contractions that make you feel like you need to throw up.
What the Evidence Shows
The clinical research on chamomile for nausea is modest but encouraging, with the strongest signals coming from pregnancy, surgery recovery, and chemotherapy.
For morning sickness, survey data suggests chamomile is one of the more popular herbal remedies among pregnant women. In a Jordanian survey of 235 women who used complementary treatments for pregnancy nausea, participants rated chamomile tea as the most effective alternative option. An Australian survey found that 83% of the 65 pregnant women who tried chamomile rated it helpful for nausea and sleep problems. These are self-reported results, not controlled trials, but the consistency is notable.
In a 2025 triple-blind randomized trial involving 110 patients recovering from middle ear surgery (a procedure notorious for causing nausea), chamomile given before the operation reduced nausea severity at the four-hour mark compared to placebo. The effect wasn’t immediate, appearing hours after recovery rather than right away. No gastrointestinal side effects were reported in either group.
A study comparing chamomile and ginger in breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy found that both significantly reduced the frequency of vomiting, with no meaningful difference between them. However, ginger outperformed chamomile on nausea frequency specifically. This suggests chamomile may be better at preventing vomiting than at eliminating the sensation of nausea itself, at least in the context of chemotherapy.
Chamomile vs. Ginger for Nausea
If you’re choosing between chamomile tea and ginger tea for nausea, the short answer is that ginger has a stronger evidence base. In the head-to-head chemotherapy study, ginger had a more pronounced effect on the feeling of nausea, while chamomile matched it only for reducing actual vomiting episodes. Ginger also has dozens more clinical trials behind it for conditions like motion sickness and postoperative nausea.
That said, chamomile has advantages ginger doesn’t. It’s milder on the stomach, which matters if your nausea comes with heartburn or acid reflux, since ginger can sometimes worsen those. Chamomile also has calming, mildly sedative properties. If your nausea is tied to anxiety or stress, or if you’re nauseated and struggling to sleep, chamomile may be the better choice. There’s no reason you can’t alternate between the two.
How to Prepare It for Best Results
Most of the therapeutic use documented in research involves steeping dried chamomile flower heads in hot water. For the strongest effect, use about one tablespoon of dried flowers (or one tea bag) per cup of just-boiled water and let it steep for at least five to ten minutes. A longer steep extracts more of the active compounds. Covering the cup while it steeps helps retain the volatile oils that would otherwise evaporate.
One to three cups per day is the range most commonly used in traditional practice and referenced in research contexts. Sipping slowly tends to work better for nausea than drinking a full cup quickly, since flooding your stomach with liquid when it’s already unsettled can backfire. If hot liquids make your nausea worse, chamomile tea works fine at room temperature or chilled.
Safety and Who Should Be Careful
Chamomile tea is considered possibly safe for both adults and children when used over the short term, according to the National Institutes of Health. Side effects are uncommon and typically mild: occasional dizziness, and ironically, nausea in some people.
The most important safety concern involves allergies. Chamomile belongs to the same plant family as ragweed, chrysanthemums, marigolds, and daisies. If you’re allergic to any of these plants, chamomile can trigger reactions ranging from mild itching to severe anaphylaxis. A case report published in JAMA specifically flagged chamomile tea as an “often unsuspected and unrecognized allergen.” If you have seasonal allergies to ragweed, try a very small amount first.
People taking blood-thinning medications like warfarin should also exercise caution. Chamomile contains natural coumarin compounds that can theoretically amplify warfarin’s effects. The first documented case involved a 70-year-old woman who developed internal bleeding after using chamomile products heavily while on warfarin. While the interaction appears rare and the biological mechanism is considered weak, it’s worth being aware of if you take anticoagulants and drink chamomile regularly or in large quantities.
For pregnant women, chamomile tea in moderate amounts (a cup or two daily) appears to be widely used without reported problems, and surveys suggest many women find it helpful. However, large-scale safety studies during pregnancy are limited, so keeping intake moderate is reasonable.