Natural products are becoming more important because of the ever increasing interest in „green chemistry“. Because of their diversity they represent a huge potential for development of new and advanced products. Special attention has been given to essential oils extracted from different plants. Thanks to the diversity of the compounds found in those oils, and proven health benefits, essential oils are of great importance to various types of industries, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry in particular. In this paper, different methods of extraction have been examined in order to determine the yield of essential oil and absolute from Helichrysum italicum from West Herzegovina under different conditions. Characterization of essential oil and absolute has also been performed. Methods that were used are hydrodistillation, vacuum distillation, soxhlet extraction, and leaching. It has been determined from the results that hydrodistillation is the more efficient method for obtaining essential oil compared to vacuum distillation, and that soxhlet extraction is more efficient than leaching for extracting absolute. It has also been determined that mass yield and the composition of essential oil and absolute depend on the month in which the plant was harvested, as well as the amount of time passed between harvesting the plant and extracting the oil or absolute from it. By characterizing the oil and absolute it has been determined that it consists mostly of sesquiterpenes, primarily β-Himachalene, β-Selinene, α-Selinene and Caryophyllene, with some esthers, alcohols and monoterpenes in certain samples. The amount of neryl acetate, as one of the indicators of the quality of oil, drops with time passed between the harvest and extraction.