Comfrey (Symphytum officinale) is often found growing as an ornamental plant in urban gardens. It has large, fleshy leaves covered in hairs and soft hollow stems, producing a cluster of blue, hanging flowers. The root has many branches, a white slimy interior and is covered in black bark. Dioscorides mentions that the root can be pounded into pieces and drunk for the treatment of conditions as varied as blood-spitting (tuberculosis) and hernia. He says that it is a good herb for closing wounds and soothing inflammations, as well as for healing injuries suffered in childbirth. Dioscorides in fact covers most of the present day uses of the herb whether it is eaten fresh, drunk as a tea or applied as a poultice.¹

Comfrey is known mostly for healing injuries just like yarrow and arnica, a class of herbs we call a vulnery. It contains tannins which tone and tighten tissues, mucilage to soothe inflammation and the compound allantoin which encourages cell proliferation in wounds. Called ‘knitbone’, it has long been used for bone-setting and to speed up the healing of fractures.

Comfrey is especially good for treating the mucus membranes of the respiratory tract during viral and bacterial infections. It is also indicated for the digestive system where soothing and healing are required for conditions such as acid reflux, duodenal ulcer and irritable bowel syndrome. Comfrey is also good for treating inflammation of the female reproductive tract.

Unfortunately, this valuable common herb has been scheduled in Australia for internal use due to concerns over the compound pyrrolizidine. This compound has supposedly induced tumours in laboratory rats fed large amounts of the herb during clinical trials, an amount far in excess of the quantity used for normal treatment.² Despite this, comfrey has been used internally as a medicine for at least two thousand years and is permitted without restriction for use in cooking in Europe and Japan, where it is valued for its high protein and vitamin content. In England it was once used as a supplement for racehorses, and in Australia it is used as a feed to strengthen livestock—all this without any history of harm.

By comparison, the world’s most often prescribed class of pharmaceutical drug,  statins, is associated with a litany of side-effects including an increased breast cancer risk in women. There is in fact no history of safe long-term use because the trials are usually run for less than 8 years, or are even terminated early to conceal the adverse findings.³ A cursory study of the  peer-reviewed trials, most of which are compromised by direct pharmaceutical industry funding, often reveals a careful misrepresentation of the data to exaggerate the claims of efficacy, while minimising the reported of side-effects.⁴ It goes without saying that a trial of a few years in duration cannot compare to a period of empirical study and clinical practice spanning several millennia.

Those who are concerned about the potential liver toxicity of comfrey can use plantain or slippery elm instead for internal use and comfrey for the external application. You can even take milk thistle concurrently for liver protection if you are still concerned. Another thing to consider is that in alternative medicine herbs are usually consumed in the context of a protective, wholefood diet, rich in antioxidants and other protective polyphenols. These are of course absent in the diet of laboratory animals fed daily on foods that are equivalent to an urban industrial diet, also known as ‘rat chow’.

Such a diet on its own has killed countless laboratory animals, and there is a vast body of written evidence beginning with such classic, pioneering experiments as those of Sir Robert McCarrison in the late 19^th century in India, in which the crucial role of vitamins was identified by martyring a legion of rats, pigeons and monkeys. It would be safe to conclude after reading such prescient findings today that by reducing your intake of such harmful foods as white bread, margarine and processed sugar, while simultaneously increasing your consumption of wholefoods, that you will significantly reduce your risk of developing any kind of deficiency or degenerative disease.⁵

A cream can be made from comfrey by simmering the grated root in olive oil until soft, straining the oil, and then adding some beeswax in a ratio of 1 part beeswax to 10 parts oil. This cream can be used for treating ulcers, burns, itches, varicose veins, swellings and sprains as I did when I twisted my knee while stepping off a ladder. Furthermore, it can be used to treat injured animals such as dogs and goats so it should find a place in the farm’s first aid kit as well. The tincture can be applied to the skin just as well as the cream, according to William Boericke who says that it can be used for treating all the joints.⁶

The low-potency homeopathic version known as Symphytum is another very effective form of comfrey, used for treating the non-union of fractures. In such a case there may be evident a slow healing of the bones or just residual pain after healing. Homeopathic versions of herbal medicine can be especially useful in hospital settings where poultices and other old-fashioned techniques can be inconvenient or frowned upon by the staff.

1.         Dioscorides P. De Materia Medica. South Africa: Ibidis; 2000.

2.         Shipard I. How Can I Use Herbs In My Daily Life? Nambour: David Stewart; 2003.

3.         Mora S, Glynn RJ, Hsia J, MacFadyen JG, Genest J, Ridker PM. Statins for the primary prevention of cardiovascular events in women with elevated high-sensitivity C-reactive protein or dyslipidemia: results from the Justification for the Use of Statins in Prevention: An Intervention Trial Evaluating Rosuvastatin (JUPITER) and meta-analysis of women from primary prevention trials. Circulation 2010;121:1069–77.

4.         Ravnskov U. The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing The Fallacy That Saturated Fat And Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease. Washington, DC: New Trends; 2000.

5.         McCarrison R. Studies in deficiency disease. London: Frowde, Hodder & Stoughton; 1921.

6.         Boericke W. Pocket Manual Of Homoeopathic Materia Medica, c. 1927. Delhi: Indian Books & Periodical Publishers; 2007.