A Wildflower’s Limited Medical Use Has Been Hijacked By Pseudomedicine
Arnica may offer health benefits, but it’s advertised by homeopaths (and that’s a concern)
Got bruises? Recently popularized, centuries-old folk remedies include gels, teas, or capsules of arnica, a yellow flower that grows across mainland Europe. Searches for “arnica tea” have more than tripled over the last five years. That’s bad news for indulgers, because all parts of arnica are poisonous!
From Spain to the Ukraine, this flower, Arnica montana, thrives in nutrient-poor clay soil. Topical gels and creams made with extracts from the flowers are marketed to help with pain relief, boils, bruises, inflammation, and even baldness. The flowers are dried and sold, incredibly diluted to minimize the poisonous effects, for use in teas and pills that also claim to treat the aforementioned maladies.
Do these creams help heal bruises faster? Or are these claims stemming from pseudoscience, with pills that intentionally contain next to none of their titular ingredient? Are the touted properties of the arnica flower substance, or superstition?
Scientific reviews haven’t found much, but it’s still a common ingredient in homeopathic remedies. Teas and other oral arnica products may even pose a health…
