Chamomile tea may modestly lower cholesterol, but the evidence so far is limited and comes primarily from one population: people with type 2 diabetes. In an 8-week clinical trial, participants who drank three cups of chamomile tea daily saw significant reductions in total cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol compared to a control group drinking water. That’s promising, but it’s not yet enough to call chamomile a reliable cholesterol-lowering tool for the general population.
What the Clinical Evidence Shows
The most cited human trial on chamomile and cholesterol involved 64 adults with type 2 diabetes in Iran. Participants drank three cups of chamomile tea (3 grams of chamomile steeped in 150 mL of hot water) immediately after meals for eight weeks. Compared to the control group, the chamomile group had statistically significant drops in total cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDL cholesterol. Their HDL (“good”) cholesterol, however, didn’t change.
This is meaningful but comes with important context. The participants already had type 2 diabetes, a condition that disrupts how the body processes fats. Chamomile also significantly improved their insulin resistance and blood sugar control in the same trial, which likely contributed to the lipid improvements. When insulin works better, your liver produces less excess cholesterol and triglycerides. So it’s hard to separate chamomile’s direct effect on cholesterol from its effect on blood sugar regulation.
There are no large-scale trials in people with high cholesterol but no diabetes, which means we don’t know if chamomile tea would produce the same results in that group.
How Chamomile May Affect Cholesterol
Chamomile contains several compounds that interact with cholesterol pathways in the body. The most studied is apigenin, a flavonoid found in high concentrations in chamomile flowers. In animal research, apigenin influences cholesterol metabolism in three distinct ways.
First, it increases the liver’s ability to pull LDL cholesterol out of the bloodstream by boosting the production of LDL receptors on liver cells. Second, it ramps up an enzyme that converts cholesterol into bile acid, which the body then excretes. This is actually the same general mechanism that some prescription cholesterol medications target. Third, apigenin promotes something called reverse cholesterol transport, the process of moving cholesterol away from blood vessel walls and back to the liver for disposal. In lab studies, apigenin increased cholesterol efflux from immune cells in a dose-dependent manner, meaning higher doses produced a stronger effect.
Chamomile also contains phytoestrogens and other flavonoids that inhibit the oxidation of LDL cholesterol. Oxidized LDL is the form that drives plaque buildup in arteries, so preventing that oxidation has cardiovascular value even if total cholesterol numbers don’t change dramatically. Animal studies using chamomile’s phytoestrogen compounds have shown LDL reductions of around 20% and total cholesterol reductions of about 10%, though animal results often don’t translate directly to humans.
How It Compares to Other Teas
Green tea and black tea have a much larger body of evidence behind their cholesterol-lowering effects. Green tea catechins consistently produce significant reductions in both total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol across multiple meta-analyses. A 12-week black tea trial in healthy adults reduced triglycerides by nearly 36% and improved the LDL-to-HDL ratio by about 17%.
Chamomile is described in systematic reviews as having “emerging evidence” for improving blood lipid profiles, placing it well behind green and black tea in terms of research confidence. If your primary goal is cholesterol management through tea, green tea currently has the strongest support. That said, chamomile offers benefits those teas don’t, particularly for blood sugar control and sleep quality, which may make it a better fit depending on your overall health picture.
Getting the Most From Your Cup
The clinical trial that showed cholesterol benefits used three cups per day, each made with 3 grams of dried chamomile (roughly one heaping teaspoon or one tea bag) in about 150 mL of hot water, consumed right after meals. That timing may matter because post-meal is when your body is actively processing dietary fats.
For extracting the most beneficial compounds, hotter water and longer steeping times pull out more antioxidants. Research on tea antioxidant extraction found that boiling water (100°C) produced the highest yields, and antioxidant content continued to increase with steeping times up to about two hours. You don’t need to steep for that long in practice, but a five-minute steep is better than two, and using water at a full boil rather than just hot will extract more of chamomile’s active flavonoids.
How Long Before You See Results
The human trial measured outcomes at eight weeks, which is the best timeframe we have for when lipid changes might become detectable. Animal studies on chamomile and metabolic health typically run 6 to 24 weeks, but researchers note that rodent lifespans compress timelines considerably. In humans, it likely takes longer to see strong effects than animal models suggest. If you’re adding chamomile tea to your routine for metabolic benefits, expect to wait at least two months of consistent daily use before any blood work changes would show up.
Safety and Drug Interactions
Chamomile tea is safe for most people at typical consumption levels. The main concern is for people taking blood thinners like warfarin, as chamomile has been reported to interact with it and could increase bleeding risk. Chamomile also affects some liver enzymes that process medications, which means it could theoretically alter how your body handles other drugs, including sedatives. If you take prescription medications, especially blood thinners, it’s worth checking with your pharmacist before drinking chamomile tea regularly. People with allergies to plants in the daisy family (ragweed, chrysanthemums, marigolds) may also react to chamomile.