Comfrey Notes

NOTES - HOLMES

There is no doubt that Comfrey has always held pride of place as the foremost botanical for promoting tissue healing. All its names throughout the ages attest to this: Boneset, knitboneand knitback are self-explanatory, while the Greek root-word symphein itself means "to grow together", as does he German wallen and te French soudre.Both the Latin names Confirma and Consolida maior(the latter HILDEGARD VON GINGEN's applellation) speak for themselves. Today we enjoy the added benefit of knowing that its ability to literally weld tissue together, whether bone, flesh or sinews, is mainly due to its allantoin content, which acts as a cell-proliferant. Bioenergetically speaking, allantoin has a calcium type of effect that stimulates cell production for repairing connective tissues, collagen and bone, often leaving a tissue injury scarless. As a remedy for tissue trauma, Comfrey's tannins cause sufficient astriction not only to staunch bleeding but also to make stitches unnecessary. Its high mucilage content, on the other hand, treats acute inflammatoy conditions and burns (even third degree), including the reduction of swelling and contusion.

Nevertheless, despite its main use among past European country healers (wise women for the most part) for tissue trauma, Comfrey is also a remedy for syndrome usage. Its ample mucilage content evinces a sweet, moist nature ideal for moistening dryness and relieving tissue irritation. The root's cool, astringent, bitter qualities clear heat, dry damp and reduce inflammation and discharge. The final outcome of these primary qualities is a botanical that restores the fluids and nourishes the blood. Comfrey's demulcent and mucogenicactions generate a mucilagenous, protective coating for the mucosa, thereby moistening, soothing and cooling the internal environment. This is ideal for treating pepic ulcers and colitis, for example. Secondary effects of its demulcent effect include the reflex relaxationof respiratory and urinary tissues, and topically, the drawing of boils and abscesses to the surface.

In short, Comfrey is a prime botanical for Yin and fluids deficiency conditions of the lung, stomachand intestines presenting dryness. Its nutritive content also makes it useful in blood deficiency with depletion, e.g., due to prolonged illness or an overactive lifestyle. The remedy's traditional use for painful arthritis, gout, etc. cannot be rationally explained--but is nonetheless effective for that.

The historical use of this plant is interesting in that it demonstrates the superior skill of Native American healers in their use of plants. This in contrast, for example, to the increasing primitiveness of Western medicine in eighteenth and nineteenth century America. Native Americans apparently received various types of Comfrey from the earliest English settlers during the sixteenth century. By the time of the great migrations westwards, Native tribes had long realized its amazing potential, and were seen applying it with far greater skill than the current White medics. In fact, they used Comfrey as skillfully as the Greek rhizomatai had done two milleniums earlier. These tribes effectively made redundant the primitive septic surgery and amputation performed by Western doctors (as seen in Dances with Wolves),thereby saving countless limbs and lives that would otherwise have been lost.