For relief of muscular pain stiffness and to help reduce swelling after minor bumps bruises or sprains suitable for vegetarians bruising is often the result of sudden injury and a local application of arnica ointment as soon as possible after the injury helps to reduce swelling and bruising arnica montana is a small herbaceous perennial indigenous to central europe in folklore shepherds reported that sheep and goats living in the mountains when injured in falls from the mountainside w