COMFREY
(Symphytum officinale)
bruisewort, knitbone, slippery root, gum plant, healing herb

Description: Perennial with a deep taproot. Plant contains a glutinous juice. The 3-5 ft. stem is angular and hairy bearing bristly, oblong, lanceolate leaves, some petioled, some sessile. White to blue-mauve flowers grow in forked scorpiod racemes and have a tubular corolla resembling a glove finger. Cultivated throughout Europe, U.S., occasionally escaped, thrives in almost any soil, doing well in moist areas or in shade.

Edible, Medicinal: Young leaves make good greens. Roasted roots, together with chicory and dandelion roots makes a coffee substitute. Anodyne, astringent, cell proliferant, demulcent, emollient, expectorant, hemostatic, refrigerant, vulnerary. Contains calcium, potassium, phosphorus and allantoin which speeds up cell renewal in damaged muscles and broken bones. Leaf tea helps inflamed, ulcerated digestive tracts and coughs. Leaf poultices reduces swelling and bruising around sprains, arthritic joints, speeds healing of cuts, burns, open sores, eczema. Internal use of large amounts of roots and leaves should be avoided. Latest research indicates the whole plant may have anti-cancer properties. Leaves make excellent manure and fertilizer.

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