Comfrey (Symphytum officinale)
Comfrey is a leafy plants, its long stem and large leaves are rough and hairy all over. They are not generally pleasant to touch and make the fingers itch. The flowers grow in clusters and are either pale yellow or purple.
HEALING
Bruises and Breaks: Bruised comfrey roots can be places on fresh cuts and wounds, resulting in a quicker healing process. Comfrey has long been favored in ointment form to quickly heal any sores, bruises, cuts, wounds, and abrasions. A salve made of the fresh herb helps heal and reconnect broken tissue and bones. It has long been revered as the "cure" for a broken bone.
Bug Bites: Comfrey can be comforting for insect bites. Rubbing a fresh comfrey leaf on a bug bite will relieve the pain and irritation.
Arthritis: Softened comfrey roots can be applied to arthritic body parts to relieve the pain and discomfort.
Gout: Nicholas Culpeper contends that "the roots of Comfrey taken fresh, beaten small and spread upon leather and laid upon any place troubled with the gout presently gives ease: and applied in the same manner it eases pained joints and tends to heal running ulcers, gangrenes, mortifications, for which it hath by often experience been found helpful."
CULINARY USES
Until the late 1970s, it was believed that comfrey was acceptable for internal use. However, later research showed that young comfrey leaves (those most commonly eaten) contain natural poisons, namely alkaloids which may be carcinogenic. It is recommended that comfrey not be ingested in any form whatsoever. Recipes are still available for using comfrey as a remedy for digestive problems; do not use these recipes.
FOLKLORE and HISTORY
Comfrey first came to popularity in the Middle Ages. Its modern name, "comfrey", evolved from its original name, con firma, which alludes to its power to unite broken bones. Its botanical name, Symphytum, comes from the Greek word "symphyo" meaning "to unite".
In Herbal Medicine, Dian Dincin Buchman tells of the secrets of Indian bonesetting. Interestingly, there is a "sect" of bonesetters in India who manually set fractures without a cast and use a unique, secret herbal preparation to heal the bone. What is most fascinating is that the bones "heal in a fraction of the time it takes with Western medicine". Unfortunately, bonesetters are not abundant because they refuse to entrust their secrets with anybody, so the magic of the bonesetters may just die out. But according to Buchman, we may already know one herb that belongs in this secret recipe -- comfrey!