Comfrey Salve: Healing Herbal Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How do you make the best comfrey salve? ›

Modern scientific studies have found some evidence to support comfrey's use in treating minor wounds and joint pain, but oral preparations of the plant have also been linked to liver damage and cancer. You should never take comfrey by mouth. You should also avoid using it on open wounds.

For arthritis relief, try creating a poultice of comfrey with pain-relieving essential oils such as peppermint oil and applying it to the painful areas two to three times a day. Please note: comfrey should only be used topically up to 10 consecutive days, in order to avoid bioaccumulation.

Gotu kola (Centella asiatica) as a cream containing 1% of the herb, to help heal wounds. Chamomile (Matricaria recutita or Chamaemelum nobile), as an ointment or cream, to help heal wounds. Echinacea or coneflower (Echinacea spp.) as a gel or ointment containing 15% of the juice of the herb.

You can make this by combining eight tablespoons of olive oil and eight of coconut oil in a pan on a low heat. Then add the comfrey as directed in step 2. Once the mixture has been strained, return to the pan on a low heat and melt in four tablespoons of beeswax pellets.

A herbal practitioner survey of the external use of comfrey in the United Kingdom indicated that comfrey is rated most effective for fractures, wounds, post-surgery healing, and problems with tendon, ligament, and muscle; while it is less effective for treating boils, hemorrhoids, and varicose veins (Frost et al., 2014 ...

How often do you apply comfrey salve? ›

Topical creams containing comfrey root extract have most often been applied to the skin by adults for up to 3 weeks. Don't apply comfrey products to broken skin or use large amounts on the skin, long-term. The poisonous chemicals in comfrey can be absorbed through the skin.

Therefore, it should never be taken by mouth. In 2001, the FDA banned oral comfrey products. Since these toxic substances can be absorbed through the skin, there's concern about the safety of comfrey cream applied topically. It's typically only used in small amounts for a very short period.

In the 1980s scientists discovered that comfrey, used for centuries externally to heal wounds and internally to soothe inflamed mucous membranes, contains chemicals called pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which can cause serious liver damage -- a finding noted by the FDA in 1993.

While comfrey is an herb with a long history of many different uses, its internal use has become quite controversial due to scientific studies, some dating back 40-60 years, that revealed potentially harmful effects of pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) (Moreira et al., 2018), which are found in comfrey.

Description: Comfrey is a plant that has been renowned for its healing properties for centuries. Comfrey promotes the growth of new skin cells and helps to increase the resilience of sensitive skin. This oil is produced by steeping Comrey in Sunflower oil for a period before removing the plant matter.

You can make this by combining eight tablespoons of olive oil and eight of coconut oil in a pan on a low heat. Then add the comfrey as directed in step 2. Once the mixture has been strained, return to the pan on a low heat and melt in four tablespoons of beeswax pellets.

Although both types of comfrey (Russian and True) are useful for making medicine and making compost, in an ideal world one would use the bocking cultivar for producing large amounts of biomass for permaculture gardens, composting, and animal feed, and one would use the true comfrey (Symphytum officinalis) for medicinal ...