Rosemary Morrow writes that ‘Russian comfrey and garlic could together, according to natural health usage, almost halve the present ills of western civilisation’ (The Book Of Herbs, Pan 1976). An extravagant claim perhaps, but comfrey does indeed have a wealth of medicinal uses. One of its country names was ‘knitbone’, a reminder of its traditional use in healing. The herb contains allantoin, a cell proliferant that speeds up the natural replacement of body cells. This means that it will promote the swift healing of damaged or injured tissues, as well as maintaining cell growth and preventing diseases. Comfrey has been used to treat a wide variety of ailments ranging from bronchial problems, broken bones, sprains, arthritis, gastric and varicose ulcers, severe burns, acne and other skin conditions.

It is also said to have bone and teeth building properties in children, and have value in treating ‘many female disorders’. In past times comfrey baths were popular to repair the hymen and thus ‘restore virginity’. Constituents of comfrey also include mucilage, steroidal saponins, tannins, pyrrolizidine alkaloids, inulin, vitamin B12 and proteins.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Comfrey”.