Bodegold Chamomile

Bodegold is a German tetraploid cultivar of Matricaria chamomilla bred for intensive flower production, and it has become the default named chamomile in North American herb catalogs. Doubling the chromosome set gives it larger, heavier flower heads and a more uniform, floriferous stand than generic seed sold simply as German chamomile. It turns up repeatedly in the agronomic literature as a reference cultivar: an irrigation study described its German-supplied seed as a chamazulene-high mixed type rich in bisabolol, while a later trial comparing it against 'Bona' and 'Bushehr' found Bodegold's oil dominated instead by bisabolol oxide A at up to 51.31%, with chamazulene peaking near 1.05% and alpha-bisabolol at just 0.10%. The practical reading is that chemotype shifts with seed lot and conditions, so growers targeting chamazulene specifically should not assume Bodegold is the strongest option. For bulk tea flowers, though, its size, evenness and sheer output are exactly why it is planted.