Internally, Wildwood says comfrey can be ingested as an herbal tea or infusion to treat, for example, gastric ulcers, rheumatic pain, arthritis, bronchitis, and colitis, and it’s her favorite way to use the dried leaves. “The one with the purple or blue flowers is safe internally or externally because they have been bred to eliminate toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids,” Wildwood explains, which can damage the liver. She says the best way to identify safe comfrey is by the color of the flowers. Wildwoods cautions that before you make any kind of infusion, however, you should be sure you’re using the correct species of comfrey, Symphytum uplandica x. You can even just rehydrate a large leaf with hot water, wrap it around a twisted ankle, then cover with plastic wrap or a towel.” Precautions “But if it is not a deep wound, it will heal wounds and strengthen skin. “An infused oil or ointment made of comfrey leaves or root speeds healing of wounds so effectively that one caution is that you cannot use it on a deep cut, because it will heal the top over so quickly that you can end up with an infection underneath,” she says. I also intend to use comfrey to help me extend my garden’s vitality well into the winter by drying the herb and then using it make a salve for cuts and scrapes, as well as for long infusions to drink throughout the season.Ĭomfrey can be applied externally as a salve, ointment, compress-or even just its leaves-to treat, for example, joint inflammatory disorders, wounds, bone fractures, and gout, according to Wildwood. Often, it is used as a green mulch to feed other plants I plan to till the leaves and flowers into the soil to enrich it for next year’s crop. Gardeners primarily grow the container friendly cultivar Russian Bocking 14, which can be identified by its purple flowers. It spreads vigorously and can grow almost anywhere-prolifically, so I keep it controlled in a pot. “Comfrey also has uses for the respiratory system, and can treat, for example, bronchitis and sore throats colitis, stomach inflammation, and ulcers and interstitial cystitis and overactive bladder.” Benefits of Comfrey “Comfrey is so good at repairing bones that it is known as ‘knitbone,’ so the bone needs to be set correctly before you start using it,” she says. According to clinical herbalist Kathleen Wildwood, who founded the Verona, Wisc.-based Wildwood Institute, comfrey leaves, and especially the roots, contain a hefty amount of allantoin, a phytochemical, or plant chemical, that speeds up cell repair. Long dismissed as an invasive weed, gardeners are giving it a second look because of its powerful fertilizing and healing capabilities. It should be noted, however, that the leaves are poisonous if ingested.One of my garden’s most resilient and beneficial perennial plants is comfrey. officinale) have been grown in medicinal herb gardens for several centuries for the purported healing properties of the leaves and roots when applied as a poultice to inflamations and wounds. Specific epithet means of Uppland, Sweden. Genus name comes from the Greek words symphyo meaning to grow together and phyton for plant as the plant was believed to help heal wounds. From pinkish buds, flowers open up rose but mature to purple. It features large, oblong to elliptic-lanceolate, medium green leaves (to 14” long at the plant base) and bell-shaped, bluebell-like flowers that appear in drooping clusters (scorpiod cymes) from mid-spring to early summer. It typically grows in an upright clump to 18-24” tall with flower stems to 4-5'. asperum) that grows in waste areas and disturbed soils in the Caucasus Mountains. Symphytum × uplandicum, commonly known as Russian comfrey, is a naturally occurring hybrid ( S. Symphytum × uplandicum is generally a coarse, hairy, rhizomatous perennial that is typically grown in borders and shade gardens for its attractive foliage and Virginia bluebell-like spring flowers.
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