“Helichrysum is one of the most important aromatic medicines of our time. It is safe, gentle and yet amazingly effective for practically all skin issues including wounds, cuts, abrasions, bruises, scars, insect bites as well as strains, sprains and inflammatory injuries.” Perfect Essence website

 

Helichrysum is widely touted as one of the essential oils that is necessary for the medicine cabinet when treating mild trauma, as its myriad of uses includes soothing burns, chapped skin, swelling, muscle aches, sprains, strains, bruises; aiding in scar tissue formation; and regenerating skin and nerves. However, helichrysum is most widely used as an anti-inflammatory (thought to be due to the high content of alpha, beta, and gamma-curcumenes present in the oil). Injuries cause a constriction of blood supply to the affected area, which in turn obstructs oxygen and nutrients from traveling between cells, traps waste, and produces free radicals. Helichrysum has the incredible ability to halt these processes, allowing for more immediate healing.

 

While Helichrysum may have unquestionable healing powers to many of its widespread users, much of the research data on the herb and its potent oil has been scant until recently. One pioneering author, Leonardo Santini, wrote about the promising effects of Helichrysum italicum in treating psoriasis in the 1940s-1950s; however, his research was not given much attention as it was published in less popular journals of the time.  Thus, it was not until the 1990s that medical research surrounding helichrysum and its therapeutic uses became more abundant. Fortunately, well-crafted scientific studies now abound, and the following table presents an extensive list of the various benefits that Helichrysum italicum and its subspecies provide:

Helichrysum italicum is perhaps the species with the most longstanding and widely used herbs in traditional medicine. However, research on the Helichrysum genus has also focused on a few other species with documented medicinal effects, including Helichrysum arenarium. It appears that different areas of the world gravitate toward the species of helichrysum that are available to them, and quickly determine the medicinal benefits present. For example, cultures in Central Europe have long used Helichrysum arenarium for its antiseptic, coloretic, and antispasmatic properties. Spanish folk healers, on the other hand, look to Helichrysum stoechas for its reputable ability to heal diverse ailments from toothaches to digestive disorders. In addition to the well-known skin care applications and other conditions mentioned above, the Turks find Helichrysum graveolens to be effective at combating diabetes mellitus.

Of these various species of helichrysum, it appears that Helichrysum stoechas, a close cousin to Helichrysum italicum, has the most scientific evidence backing its use as a healing medicinal plant. The table below succinctly lists the studied effects of species of helichrysum other than Helichrysum italicum: