Chamomile Oil for Headaches: Red Flags, One Trial, and Scent

If you get frequent or severe headaches, the useful next step is a clinician, not a bottle of oil, and for some people the scent itself is part of the problem. There is one small chamomile trial in migraine, and it tested a standardized gel that is not our product. Here is the order we would work through it, starting with the headaches that should not wait.

Roman Chamomile Essential Oil bottle

Roman Chamomile Essential Oil

Our own Roman Chamomile Essential Oil, in sizes from 0.5 oz to bulk.

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First: headaches that are not a shopping question

The NHS headache page says to call 999 or go to A&E (in the UK; elsewhere, use your local emergency number) if a headache comes with any of the following:

It lists an urgent GP appointment or a 111 call for a headache with vision or eye problems, one triggered or made worse by coughing, sneezing, bending or exercise, one with vomiting, or one with jaw pain when eating or a sore scalp. It lists a routine GP visit if self-care is not working or you get headaches regularly. None of that is a place for essential oil, and our oils make no claim about any of it. We sell oil, not advice, so the right person is a physician.

What the chamomile migraine trial actually tested

The trial is Zargaran et al., Neurological Sciences, 2018. It was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study. A hundred patients were enrolled and 72 completed it per protocol (38 in the active-then-placebo order, 34 in the reverse). Each person used two tubes of the chamomile preparation and two of placebo, and scored pain on a 0 to 10 scale over 24 hours, along with nausea, vomiting, photophobia and phonophobia. The authors report that all five scores fell significantly (p < 0.001) 30 minutes after the chamomile preparation, and conclude it supports use for pain in migraine without aura.

Read what it was, though. The product was an oleogel made from a reformulated traditional chamomile oil, standardized to 4.48 microlitres of chamazulene per ml and 0.233 mg of apigenin per gram. Apigenin is a flavonoid; it is found in chamomile extracts, not something we would claim for a steam-distilled essential oil. The same group's 2014 paper in Medical Hypotheses describes the traditional starting point as an aqueous chamomile extract boiled in sesame oil, and proposes mechanisms (inhibition of nitric oxide and prostaglandin E2 pathways, among others). That paper is a hypothesis, not a trial. The abstract record for the 2018 trial does not describe the placebo or state funding, and it is a single trial in one population, in migraine without aura.

Reasoning from that: the trial supports further study of a standardized chamomile gel. It does not tell you what happens if you dilute our oil in a carrier and rub it on your temples, because nobody has tested that, and the actives that were standardized in the gel are not the same thing as an essential oil's profile.

Essential oils for migraine as a group

A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis, Murtey et al., Korean Journal of Family Medicine, pooled seven randomized trials (558 adults with migraine) comparing essential oils with placebo. On attack frequency the differences were not significant: a mean difference of -1.34 (95% CI -3.31 to 0.64) across four trials and 242 people, and -0.38 (95% CI -1.76 to 0.99) across five trials and 240 people, with heterogeneity of 94% and 86%. The authors' conclusion is that they found no significant difference between essential oils and placebo in managing migraine. The abstract does not name the oils, and it reports only attack counts, not the pain-score outcomes that single trials like Zargaran's used. So the two sources partly disagree in tone (one trial reports a within-hours pain drop; the pooled analysis finds no difference in attack counts), but they measured different things, and neither is about our oils.

The scent problem

Here is the part most oil sellers leave out. A prospective study, Silva-Néto et al., Cephalalgia, 2017, exposed 158 people with primary headaches to odors. Odor triggered a headache in 25 of 72 people with migraine (34.7%) and in none of the 86 people with other primary headaches. In those who reacted, the headache began on average about 118 minutes into the exposure. It was one study in one clinic population, and the abstract does not say which odors were used, so we cannot say how chamomile would behave. The practical consequence is still plain: if you have migraine, a fragrant oil on your skin or in the air is not a neutral choice, and a delayed onset (about two hours in this study) means the link is easy to miss.

If you still want to try it

If a physician has seen you and you simply want to use chamomile oil as a fragrance on your own skin, our German oil is the one with the published Certificate of Analysis on the product page, and the Roman oil has the sweeter, apple-like aroma. Both are undiluted, so you do the maths: our product pages give 0.5% to 2% in a carrier, which for 10 ml of carrier is 0.05 ml to 0.2 ml of oil. We have not tested this use or any recipe. Patch test first (how to patch test), keep it away from the eyes, and stop at once if you notice a headache starting. Avoid the temples and eye area; see chamomile oil inhalation for what we say about scent in the air, and chamomile essential oil safety for the wider limits. We do not sell carrier oils, roll-ons or gels.

Who should skip it

Skip it if you are prone to migraine and strong smells set you off, if you have a ragweed or Asteraceae allergy, or if the headache pattern is new, worsening or unusual for you. Do not use it on children's heads or on pets. Do not take it by mouth. For anxiety-related tension, see chamomile oil for anxiety and stress, and for aches elsewhere, chamomile oil for joint and muscle pain.

Our verdict is short: for headaches you cannot explain, or that keep coming back, see a physician. Chamomile oil may be pleasant, but one trial of a gel that is not our product and a pooled analysis that found no difference for essential oils overall are not a reason to expect anything from it.

Roman Chamomile Essential Oil bottle

Roman Chamomile Essential Oil

Roman Chamomile Essential Oil from our own shop, in sizes from 0.5 oz to bulk.

From $32.99

Shop Now →

Sources & Further Reading