Intermediate degree modes of the solar oscillations have previously been used to determine the solar helium abundance to a high degree of precision .
However , we can not expect to observe such modes in other stars .
In this work we investigate whether low degree modes that should be available from space-based asteroseismology missions can be used to determine the helium abundance , Y , in stellar envelopes with sufficient precision .
We find that the oscillatory signal in the frequencies caused by the depression in \Gamma _ { 1 } in the second helium ionisation zone can be used to determine the envelope helium abundance of low mass main sequence stars .
For frequency errors of 1 part in 10 ^ { 4 } , we expect errors \sigma _ { Y } in the estimated helium abundance to range from 0.03 
for 0.8M _ { \odot } stars to 0.01 for 1.2M _ { \odot } stars .
The task is more complicated in evolved stars , such as subgiants , but is still feasible if the relative errors in the frequencies are less than 10 ^ { -4 } .