Herbal Digestive Calendula Tea:
A Remedy for Heartburn and Peptic Ulcers
Written and Photographed by Juliet Blankespoor
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If you’re looking for an herb to soothe and repair digestive issues, the cheery flowers of calendula (Calendula officinalis) will be one of your primary allies. Calendula tea is commonly used to help remedy peptic ulcers, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). It supports the healing of gastric and intestinal inflammation from infection or irritation through its vulnerary (wound healing), anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial actions.
Calendula can be combined with licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra), slippery elm (Ulmus rubra), marshmallow root (Althaea officinalis), and meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) as a natural remedy for GERD, which commonly affects people with the symptoms of heartburn. In the case of peptic ulcers, calendula can be taken concurrently with antibiotic therapy (to address the presence of the bacterial infection of H. pylori or Helicobacter pylori), and then continued for two weeks after finishing treatment. See the notes below for important contraindications.
For a more detailed guide to calendula’s expansive medicinal benefits, visit my article on Growing and Using Calendula.
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Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) harvest.
Safety and Contraindications: Do not use calendula internally during pregnancy since it has traditionally been used to bring on menses. As calendula is in the aster family, it may cause a reaction for people who are highly sensitive to plants like ragweed (Ambrosia spp.) and chamomile (Matricaria recutita); this possibility is rare, but sensitive individuals should proceed with caution when using calendula for the first time. Rare incidences of allergic contact dermatitis have occurred with the topical use of calendula.
Digestive Calendula Tea Recipe
Equipment
- Large pot
- Strainer
Ingredients
- 2 parts meadowsweet leaves and flowers (Filipendula ulmaria)
- 1 parts marshmallow root (Althaea officinalis)
- 1 parts calendula flowers (Calendula officinalis)
- 2 parts licorice root (Glycyrrhiza glabra or G. uralensis)
- 8 fluid ounces water
- Honey or maple syrup to taste - Optional
Directions
- For every 8 fluid ounces (236 ml) of water, use 2 teaspoons (10 ml) of the herb blend.
- Place the desired amount of herbal blend and water in a pot and bring to a boil.
- Simmer for twenty minutes and take off the heat.
- Strain and sweeten with honey or maple syrup if desired.
- Drink one to three cups a day.
- Store in fridge.
Notes
Safety and Contraindications: This formula should not be taken internally during pregnancy because of the calendula and licorice (instead use slippery elm alone). The use of meadowsweet is cautioned in people who have aspirin sensitivity (or sensitivity to other salicylate-containing drugs). Meadowsweet may thin the blood; therefore, monitor coagulation values with people who are taking pharmaceutical blood thinners (the evidence for meadowsweet’s effect on coagulation is inconclusive). Marshmallow has no known adverse effects.
Licorice is contraindicated in pregnancy, water retention (edema), heart conditions, and high blood pressure. If licorice is not advisable, omit the licorice from the tea blend, and use a DGL licorice (deglycyrrhizinated licorice) preparation instead. Use the same proportions for the remaining herbs in the formula if you’re omitting the licorice.
See the notes above for contraindications pertaining to calendula.
Meet the Green Mastermind Behind Blog Castanea:
JULIET BLANKESPOOR is the founder, primary instructor, and Creative Director of the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine, an online school serving thousands of students from around the globe. She's a professional plant-human matchmaker and bonafide plant geek, with a degree in botany and over 30 years of experience teaching and writing about herbalism, medicine making, and organic herb cultivation. Juliet’s lifelong captivation with medicinal weeds and herb gardening has birthed many botanical enterprises over the decades, including an herbal nursery and a farm-to-apothecary herbal products business.
These days, she channels her botanical obsession through her writing and photography in her online programs, on her personal blog Castanea, and in her new book, The Healing Garden: Cultivating and Handcrafting Herbal Remedies. Juliet and her family reside in a home overrun with houseplants and books in Asheville, North Carolina.
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Looking for more blog articles about calendula?
We’ve stocked up everything you need to know about calendula’s healing benefits, plus compiled our recipes for making calendula oils, poultices, salves, and teas.
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elena says:
Thank you for providing such a comprehensive and practical guide. Your blog has become a valuable resource for me, and I’m sure it will help many others on their journey to better manage high cholesterol. Looking forward to more insightful content from you.
Melissa Quercia says:
You’re welcome! We are so happy to hear that you enjoy our blog content 🙂
Robert says:
I put calendula with neem and serasee along with black tea is that ok. ?
Melissa Quercia says:
There are many different herbs that you can pair with calendula. This recipe is just one option. Let us know how that combination works for you!
Claudia says:
So this is called Calendula tea but I notice that the recipe calls for twice as much meadowsweet as Calendula. Are they the right proportions?
Christine Borosh says:
Yes, this is correct! Calendula can have a bitter flavor as a tea, so these proportions give this recipe a nice balance so that it will be both tasty and effective.
Ro says:
Do you sell this tea?
Christine Borosh says:
No, we do not sell any herbs, teas, or other herbal products. If you look on our Herbal Resources and Links page, you’ll find a list of some of our favorite herbal suppliers in the “Supplies – herbs and accoutrements” section.
Jodie says:
Please where can we buy this tea thank you
Christine Borosh says:
Calendula and the other herbs in this tea blend can be purchased from various herb suppliers. If you go to our Herbal Resources page, you’ll find a list of some of our favorite herbal suppliers in the “Herbal Supplies: Bulk Herbs & Accoutrements” section.
Michael says:
The recipe look very tastey Thanks for sharing. For someone with aspirin allergy, could I just omit the meadowsweet?
Sarah Sorci says:
Absolutely! Removing the meadowsweet from this formula sounds like the safest bet. If you’d like to replace it with another astringent herb, raspberry leaf is one option. Plantain leaf is another herb used to support the GI tract.
Shannon says:
Thank you for the recipe! I also love the glass teapot — can you share where you got it? Thank you!
Christine Borosh says:
We hope you enjoy the recipe! This is the teapot that was used in these photos. Unfortunately, it looks like this one is no longer available, but there are some similar ones.
shanley says:
When you say “parts” is that measured by weight? Thank you!
Sarah Sorci says:
Thanks for clarifying! In the Digestive Calendula Tea recipe, the ingredients can be measured by weight. (Since licorice root and marshmallow root are much heavier than calendula flowers, it would be quite a different tea if measured by volume).
Татьяна says:
The recipe looks very tasty. I think that healthy people can also drink such tea for pleasure.
Julie says:
Will this work for severe gastritis and GERD
Sara Kinney says:
These herbs have been traditionally used for GERD, and I think that the tea certainly may provide relief. It’s definitely worth a try!
Rosanna says:
Good day. I know roots should be simmered. And I always steep flowers & leaves. Wouldn’t simmering them for 20 minutes destroy their medicinal goodness?
Thanks, Rosanna
Sara Kinney says:
That’s a great question. In most cases, we do steep flowers and leaves in hot water rather than simmering them. In this blend, the meadowsweet and calendula can stand a bit of extra heat. Calendula flowers have actually traditionally been boiled with other ingredients to make soup broth, so they’re just particularly hardy little flowers! However, all these herbs would also work as an infusion (by steeping them in hot water). I encourage you to try the formula both ways, once by simmering, and once by steeping. Then you can use the method that works best for you.
Iona says:
I suffer from IBD so I will definitely be keeping this one in my back pocket when I start using naturally grown herbal teas. I recently started growing chamomile and plucking the flowers to dry for later use. Thank you for this great information.
Carrie Brady says:
For someone with aspirin allergy, could I just omit the meadowsweet?
Sara Kinney says:
Yes, this formula will still work well without the meadowsweet. If someone is sensitive to the salicylates in aspirin, the meadowsweet can be omitted.
Carrie Brady says:
That’s good to know. One more question, which I thought of after I had posted my original comment. Would an infusion of only calendula still be helpful for heartburn/reflux?
Sara Kinney says:
Yes, it would. On its own, calendula is definitely helpful for heartburn/reflux, and I actually add a few blossoms to many of my tea formulas that might trigger heartburn. At the same time, the herbs in the formula listed in this article all help heartburn for different reasons, and so the combination is especially beneficial. It would definitely be a worthwhile experiment to try each of these herbs on its own to see which ones are most effective for you.
Carrie Brady says:
Awesome, thank you! Right now, all I have in my stock is the calendula, so I’d love to give that to my husband who suffers from acid reflux now, while waiting to get the other herbs 🙂
ap says:
can this tea be used for Acid Reflux? great information, thank you.
Sara Kinney says:
Our pleasure! Yes, this is a great formula for acid reflux.
Christianne says:
Would it be helpful to make a tincture from Calendula?
Sara Kinney says:
Yes, you can also make a tincture from calendula!