Chamomile vs. Lemon Balm for Anxiety: Which One Actually Has the Evidence?

Both herbs get sold as gentle, natural answers to anxiety. The research is narrower than the marketing. Chamomile has been tested in people with a diagnosed anxiety disorder; lemon balm has not. Lemon balm has been tested for short bursts of laboratory stress, where chamomile has come up empty. And what the researchers handed out bears little resemblance to what comes out of a tea bag.

Which has more human evidence, chamomile or lemon balm?

Chamomile, as long as you are counting trials in people with a diagnosed disorder.

The anchor study is an eight-week double-blind trial of 57 adults with mild-to-moderate generalized anxiety disorder, randomized to standardized chamomile extract capsules or placebo. Anxiety scores fell further on chamomile, though the margin was slim (p = 0.047) PubMed. A later program gave 179 people 1,500 mg of extract daily; about 58% responded. When responders were randomized to continue or switch to placebo, fewer relapsed on chamomile, but not significantly so (hazard ratio 0.52, 95% CI 0.20–1.33), even though those who stayed on it held slightly lower anxiety scores PubMed PubMed.

A 2019 meta-analysis found a modest improvement on the Hamilton anxiety scale in generalized anxiety disorder — roughly 1.4 to 1.8 points at two and four weeks — and no difference at all when it pooled three trials of ordinary state anxiety PubMed. A 2022 Bayesian network meta-analysis of 29 trials across 12 herbs could not distinguish chamomile from placebo (mean difference 0.54, credible interval -5.13 to 6.25); its authors were careful to add that the evidence was also too thin to call chamomile ineffective PubMed. Moderate evidence for the capsules, a modest effect, an unsettled question.

Lemon balm has nothing comparable. Its human anxiety data comes from small crossover studies in healthy volunteers and short trials in people with a chronic illness. That evidence is limited: lemon balm did not even appear among the 12 herbs the 2022 analysis had enough data to compare.

Does chamomile tea do what the chamomile capsules did?

Nobody has run that trial. What we do know is that the doses are not the same.

Every positive chamomile anxiety trial used pharmaceutical-grade extract standardized for its apigenin content, at up to 1,500 mg a day. A tea bag holds roughly one to two grams of dried flowers, and only some of the plant's compounds dissolve out in three to five minutes of 200°F water. The chamomile tea page covers each trial; the pattern holds throughout.

Apigenin does make it out of the bag and into you. When healthy men drank chamomile tea, its main apigenin metabolite peaked in plasma around two hours, and metabolites equivalent to about 34% of the dose turned up in urine PubMed. So the tea is not inert. What nobody has done is compare the apigenin in a cup against the amount in those capsules, or test brewed chamomile tea against placebo for anxiety. Absorbed is not the same as effective.

The mechanism story is thinner than the packaging suggests. Apigenin competes with benzodiazepines for binding sites in brain tissue and reduced anxiety-like behavior in mice PubMed. A second laboratory confirmed the binding but did not reproduce the anxiolytic effect in rats PubMed. Animal and test-tube work is limited evidence by definition.

And the one randomized trial that put a brewed tea up against a placebo tea should give you pause. In 2024, 210 people awaiting elective surgery drank either a calming herbal blend or a lemon-flavored placebo tea. Anxiety fell in both groups, with no significant difference between them PubMed. The blend was a mixture, not chamomile on its own, so it is not a clean test of chamomile tea — but it is the closest anyone has come, and the tea did not beat the placebo. A warm drink and a deliberate pause are genuinely soothing. Separating that from the plant is harder than the internet lets on.

What does lemon balm actually do for anxiety?

It acts faster, if it acts. In an 18-person double-blind crossover, a single 600 mg dose of standardized extract raised self-rated calmness during a 20-minute laboratory stress task — and lowered self-rated alertness PubMed. An earlier crossover in 20 adults also saw calmness rise, but only at the lowest dose tested (300 mg), only at the earliest time points, and alongside lower memory scores PubMed. Two trials pointing the same way without agreeing on the dose.

The longer trials are small. Eighty adults with chronic stable angina took 3 g of a lemon balm supplement daily for eight weeks and reported lower anxiety, depression, and stress scores than placebo PubMed. Sixty adults with type 2 diabetes and depressive symptoms took 700 mg of extract daily for 12 weeks and improved on both measures, though only 44 finished and fasting blood sugar did not budge PubMed.

A 2021 systematic review pooled these trials and reported a large effect on anxiety scores versus placebo (standardized mean difference -0.98) PubMed. Before you file that under settled: its authors flagged high heterogeneity, noted how few trials there were, and urged caution. The pooled studies were small, single-center, and rested on self-report questionnaires. They tested extracts and capsules; we could find no trial of brewed lemon balm tea for anxiety.

Mechanistically, rosmarinic acid from lemon balm inhibits GABA transaminase in a test-tube assay using rat brain enzyme PubMed. Test tube. The lemon balm tea page covers the rest.

Chamomile vs lemon balm: how do they compare?

What do the trials get wrong that nobody mentions?

Chamomile did not separate from placebo in the 2022 network analysis. Lemon balm has two problems of its own.

First, the only dose-ranging study was not lemon balm alone. In 24 volunteers, 600 mg of a lemon balm and valerian combination blunted anxiety during a stress task, while 1,800 mg of the same product left anxiety higher, significantly so during one testing session; all three doses worsened performance on the Stroop task PubMed. Because valerian was in every capsule, none of that can be pinned on lemon balm — but it is a reason not to assume more is better. A 2025 randomized trial of 96 knee-replacement patients used the same kind of lemon balm and valerian capsule; pre-surgical anxiety fell, but not by a statistically significant margin PubMed. Worth knowing that valerian is sedating in its own right: it should not be stacked with alcohol, benzodiazepines, opioids, or other sedatives, and not taken before driving.

Second, lemon balm dulls you. In a crossover trial, self-rated alertness fell significantly at every measured time point after a 900 mg dose, and memory scores slipped PubMed. The 600 mg dose in the stress study lowered alertness too PubMed. Worth knowing if you have a hard afternoon ahead.

Who should avoid chamomile, and who should avoid lemon balm?

Skip chamomile if you are allergic to ragweed, mugwort, chrysanthemums, marigolds, daisies, or other Asteraceae plants. In a series of 14 people sensitized to chamomile, ten had immediate-type reactions, some life-threatening; most were also sensitized to mugwort and many to birch pollen PubMed. In one published case a man was hospitalized about 30 minutes after chamomile tea with itchy palms, swollen eyelids and upper lip, and throat tightness PubMed; another describes anaphylaxis to chamomile tea in a person with mugwort allergy PubMed. Wheezing, facial swelling, or trouble breathing after a cup is a call-911 situation, not a wait-and-see one.

Clear it with a prescriber if you take warfarin or another anticoagulant or antiplatelet medicine: a 70-year-old woman on warfarin was hospitalized with multiple internal hemorrhages after using chamomile tea and body lotion PubMed. Chamomile has also been reported to raise cyclosporine blood levels in patients, a serious problem in transplant care PubMed. NCCIH adds two softer cautions: chamomile may reduce the effect of birth control pills, and additive drowsiness with sedatives is plausible though unproven. Tell your surgical team before an operation, since herbal products are usually stopped beforehand. And do not give chamomile tea to a baby under 12 months: dried chamomile can carry Clostridium botulinum spores, and steeping water is not hot enough to kill them.

Skip lemon balm, or ask first, if you have thyroid disease. In laboratory experiments, freeze-dried extracts blocked bovine thyroid-stimulating hormone from binding to human thyroid membranes PubMed and blunted the stimulating antibodies of Graves' disease PubMed. Test tubes, not people, and no human study shows the tea changes thyroid hormone levels. Still, a titrated levothyroxine dose is not the place to add variables.

Lemon balm extract lowered self-rated alertness in both crossover trials above, so additive drowsiness with benzodiazepines, sleep aids, opioids, and alcohol is plausible, though no trial has tested the combination. Do not drive after your first cup until you know how it affects you. A blood-sugar-lowering effect is often listed for lemon balm, but the diabetes trial found no change in fasting blood sugar PubMed; mention it to your prescriber anyway if you use insulin or another glucose-lowering drug.

Neither herb has been adequately studied in medicinal amounts during pregnancy or breastfeeding. Nobody can honestly call either safe or unsafe. Ask your obstetrician or midwife first.

When does anxiety need a clinician rather than a mug?

Tea is a reasonable, low-risk part of winding down. It is not a treatment for an anxiety disorder, and it will not stop a panic attack.

See a doctor, not a teabag, if:

• anxiety has run most days for six months or longer, or is interfering with work, sleep, or relationships;
• you have had a panic attack, especially a first one. Chest pain, a pounding heart, and breathlessness can also signal a cardiac or thyroid problem;
• you have unexplained weight loss with a racing pulse and tremor;
• the anxiety started after a new medication, or after cutting back on alcohol or benzodiazepines;
• you drink or use sedatives to get through the day.

If you are having thoughts of harming yourself, call or text 988 in the United States.

Never stop a prescribed anxiety medication to try tea instead, and never stop a benzodiazepine abruptly.

The bottom line

Chamomile has the better evidence, and it is still moderate at best, still confined to capsules, and still unproven in the largest pooled analysis. Lemon balm's data is faster-acting but weaker, and its only dose-ranging study tested a valerian combination rather than lemon balm alone.

So choose on taste, timing, and safety. Chamomile for a background hum of worry in the evening, if ragweed and warfarin are not in the picture. Lemon balm for a stressful afternoon, if your thyroid is fine and you are not about to drive. Treat whichever you pick as what it is: a warm, caffeine-free pause, not medicine. The teas for anxiety and stress roundup ranks both against passionflower, lavender, and valerian by the human evidence behind them.

Photo: Lemon balm plant.jpg by Amitchell125 — CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped and re-encoded.

Last reviewed and updated July 9, 2026. HelperTea is written by an enthusiast, not a clinician, and is not medically reviewed. How we research and rate evidence. Found an error? Tell us — safety corrections get priority.