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Functional Food

5 Promising Benefits Of Calendula Tea & How To Brew The Perfect Cup

Author: Sarah Garone, NDTR

April 04, 2026

Licensed Nutritionist

By Sarah Garone, NDTR

Licensed Nutritionist

Sarah Garone, NDTR is a licensed nutritionist and freelance health and wellness writer in Mesa, AZ whose work has appeared in numerous publications.

What is calendula tea?

Benefits

Adding it to your routine

Buying & storage

Brew tips

Side effects

FAQ

Image by Ivona Zivulj / Stocksy

April 04, 2026

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Nothing soothes the mind and body quite like a cup of herbal tea. If you're a tea enthusiast, you might be used to brewing a cup of chamomile or rooibos—but have you considered adding calendula to your rotation? Also called pot marigold, this tasty herbal tea has some potential health perks to boot.

Here's what to know about the benefits of calendula tea, how to add it to your routine, and pro tips on how to brew it.

What is calendula tea?

Calendula tea comes from cheerful-looking yellow calendula flowers, named for the Latin word for "little clock," probably because of their round shape. These flowers and their leaves provide the makings of a slightly bitter-tasting, yellow-hued beverage that packs the potential for relieving menstrual cramps, reducing fevers, and more.

Though calendula tea has been used in folk medicine for centuries, it's not as popular as some of its herbal tea cousins, and not all that common in mainstream stores. You may have to order calendula online or from specialty tea providers. If you do so, you can expect to pay about $1 to $3 per ounce.

Like most brewed teas, calendula isn't a source of any macro- or micronutrients. But that doesn't mean it doesn't have health benefits! The tea leaves contain various antioxidants, including terpenes, flavonoids, polyphenols, and carotenoids.

When released into water through steeping, these antioxidants don't provide calories but do help reduce inflammation in the body1. Calendula tea is naturally caffeine-free, making it suitable to sip at any time.

Summary

Calendula tea is a naturally caffeine-free tea made from yellow calendula flowers. Its taste is earthy and slightly bitter. It's not as popular as other herbal teas like chamomile, but you should be able to find it in specialty tea shops.

Calendula tea benefits

Calendula's medicinal uses are varied and stretch back into history. Here are a few traditional benefits of the tea—some of which are now just starting to be investigated by modern science:

1.It could help reduce fevers (but we need more research to be sure)

"Calendula has been traditionally used to reduce fever," says registered dietitian Wan Na Chun, MPH, R.D., CPT. According to Chun, the plant's flowers demonstrate both astringent and anti-inflammatory activity2, which could be the reason folk medicine has long used them to bring down fevers. "However, there is limited scientific evidence to support this claim. More research is needed," she says.

That said, many homeopathic practitioners use the tea as part of fever reduction treatment.

2.It may have benefits for skin, but creams will be more effective

Calendula cream is a popular, inexpensive choice for moisturizing and hydrating skin—so you might wonder, does the tea work the same as the cream? "Calendula tea has several benefits for the skin," says Chun. "[It] may promote wound and skin ulcer healing3, combat acne, and reduce radiodermatitis, which is skin damage caused by radiation."

Still, for most skin issues, you'll probably get better results from calendula cream than calendula tea. Research from 2022 found that preparations intended for external use (like lotions and creams) were effective for preserving skin firmness4, counteracting inflammation, and regenerating damaged tissue. Tea, on the other hand, had antiseptic properties but wasn't noted for its ability to heal skin.

3.It could have anti-cancer properties and be useful in cancer palliative care

Because of its antioxidants, calendula helps activate proteins that kill cancer cells5, according to a 2018 paper in Integrative Cancer Therapies. Another study compared the cancer-fighting properties of calendula tea and chamomile tea. Calendula came out on top6 for its antitumor potential. However, this research is preclinical, so we still have a lot to learn before we can definitively say that calendula has anti-cancer properties.

Where we do have more research is in the cancer palliative care space: In one randomized clinical trial, calendula extract combined with petroleum jelly helped prevent radiation-induced dermatitis7 in breast cancer patients receiving treatment. But again, patients applied calendula topically—they didn't sip it as tea.

4.It could ease period pain and stimulate menstruation

It's possible t