There are a lot of “natural remedies” out there. In fact, I have a magazine article stuck to the back of one of my cabinet doors stating the benefits of thyme for a sore throat and onions for colds. Comfrey is not a remedy I’ve heard of. However, from my latest research, it sounds like it would be very useful for breaks, contusions, sprains, and any instance where you need something healed. Is it though? The ancients had certainly heard of it. According to an article by Christiane Staiger (Comfrey: ancient and modern uses), Pliny the elder (23-79 AD) in his ‘Naturalis historia’ and Dioscorides (40-90 AD) in ‘Materia medica’ both mention its healing properties. In the middle ages, Nicholas Culpeper (1616-1654 AD) noted its ability to ‘consolidate and knit together’. There are even clinical trials properly run with placebos that demonstrate a significant improvement in wound healing, back pain, painful osteoarthritis, and blunt injuries compared to a placebo (Comfrey: A clinical overview).
The key healing ingredient in comfrey that I saw mentioned in several places was allantoin. Allantoin is a safe and non-toxic byproduct derived from the oxidation of uric acid in animals other than humans and higher apes. Even though it is supposed to be good for healing, I couldn’t find much on pubmed about the healing properties of allantoin, although I did find one kind-of recent animal study (Araujo et al., 2010). I also searched to see if anyone had compared allantoin to comfrey and BAM! found it. Savic et al., 2015 claimed comfrey root extract was better but I couldn’t get to the whole article to read up on their experiments or see if they had any conflicts of interest.
The reason I’ve probably never heard of it for use in recent times is because comfrey has received some bad publicity due to the toxins it contains. WebMD says:
Comfrey is a plant. Even though this plant contains poisonous chemicals called pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs), some people use the leaf, root, and root-like stem (rhizome) to make medicine.
Despite safety concerns, comfrey is used by mouth for stomach ulcers, heavy menstrual periods, diarrhea, bloody urine, cough, bronchitis, cancer, and chest pain (angina). It is also used as a gargle for gum disease and sore throat.
Comfrey is applied to the skin for ulcers, wounds, muscle soreness, bruises, rheumatoid arthritis, varicose veins, gout, and fractures.
In July 2001, the US FDA advised the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) to cease marketing products with comfrey or PA. Other countries have also put limitations of the use of comfrey (Moreira et al., 2018).
I think it is clear that comfrey works. I have no doubt that comfrey would have been available to the Picts as it was known by the Romans and is native to Britain. While it does have some toxicity, the level apparently depends on several factors (http://www.nantahala-farm.com/comfrey-pyrrolizidine-alkaloids-reducing-s.shtml), and with typical use toxicity hasn’t been associated with problems in humans (Moreira et al., 2018).
Leave a Reply