COMFREY Symphytum officinale

Posted by Tricia on 14 February 2012 | 1 Comments

Tags: comfrey, symphytum, officinale, knitbone, varicose, ulcers, wounds, osteoarthritis, psoriasis, strains, broken, bones, allantoin

Comfrey was first brought to my attention after the birth of my son more than thirty years ago. My domiciliary midwife, the wonderful Joan Donnelly was a staunch advocate of eating weeds and comfrey was one of her favourites. She was a picture of health and as well as her weed salads she used to knock back tablespoons of cayenne pepper to keep any bugs at bay. Undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with and she was a guiding light in the homebirth movement in this country. But I digress... comfrey also a force to be reckoned with, there's no getting rid of it once it establishes itself. Every little rootlet will grow a new plant. I used to curse it when my garden was tiny. Now I welcome the huge clumps it makes and I have created gardens around it. In early spring when I am planting seedlings or planning to make a comfrey tea for the garden I can never get enough of it! It has had some very bad press during the last few years for causing hepato-toxicity in laboratory experiments with rats, but there's no need to throw out the baby with the bath water. Problems can occur from ingesting the roots, in quantity. Topically it is one of our most marvelous healers for all manner of wounds and injuries from the skin through to the ligaments and the bone, nicely backed up by placebo double-blind trials I might add! For more details read the full post.

1 comments | Read the full post