Essential oil composition from three Helichrysum species

Genus Helichrysum (Asteraceae) consists of approximately 600 species distributed in Europe, Asia, India, Sri Lanka, Australia and Africa. Helichrysum species are used in traditional medicine for treatment of skin inflammation, infections and respiratory problems. Furthermore Helichrysum species find applications as digestive, analgesic, antirheumatic, cardiotonic, diuretic and anti-diarrheal remedies [1 – 4]. The aim of this work was to evaluate the chemical composition of essential oils (EO) from three Helichrysum species: H. arenarium (L.) Moench, H. nudifolium (L.) Less and H. thianshanicum Regel. The plant material was collected in June 2015 in CREA, Sanremo (Italy). Dried flowers and leaves were submitted separately to hydrodistillation in a Clevenger-type apparatus and the essential oil (EO) profiles were identified by GC-MS. The analysis were performed in triplicate.