Helichrysum; A Versatile Traditional Remedy

This paper is a review on the medicinal uses of plant natural products with emphasis on theHelichrysum Genus which has been used as an illustrative example. The review is dividedinto four parts, the first part deals with a general discussion of ethnopharmacology. Thesecond part discusses folklore of the Helichrysum species as it applies to Lesotho andelsewhere. The third part illustrates the structural diversity of the compounds isolated fromHelichrysum species. The fourth is a discussion of the pharmacological and biological actionof extracts of the Helichrysum species. The review reveals the existence of correlationbetween some medicinal uses and the biological action of the compounds isolated from someof the plant species belonging to the Helichrysum genus