How to get the best action out of comfrey root ???

[Guest guest]

First, there is no comfrey leaves to get on this side of the pond ;-)

if I don't cultivate them myself....I will, I promise, but from what

I understand they are pretty invasive, so I need to find something to

keep them in check.

 

Secondly - I have used allantonium powder from the onle and only

supplier here (to my knowledge at least) and with good results. BUT,

when I went through their catalogue I found out tha it's not natural

at all, " natural indentical " is what it says..... And here i was,

trying to stay all natural ;-P

 

Thirdly - I do have some dried comfrey root (whole not powdered)

purchased here in Sweden. But from what I have read, the allatonium

can't be extracted with water, but tincturing is fine. Hmm, is it

extractable in oil??? If I was to make a healing balm, I can't put

tincture in it can I??

 

Come on all you people with herbal insights and give me your thoughts

and advise on this one :-D

Right knwo I think the roof is gonna come down over my head, my boys

are playing with their Bayblades and is stomping like h-ll up there.

Gaaaahhhhh, my poor, poor head.

 

Fragrant Blessings,

Ylva

[Guest guest]

At 02:59 PM 11/12/2003 -0000, you wrote:

>First, there is no comfrey leaves to get on this side of the pond ;-)

>if I don't cultivate them myself....I will, I promise, but from what

>I understand they are pretty invasive, so I need to find something to

>keep them in check.

>

>Secondly - I have used allantonium powder from the onle and only

>supplier here (to my knowledge at least) and with good results. BUT,

>when I went through their catalogue I found out tha it's not natural

>at all, " natural indentical " is what it says..... And here i was,

>trying to stay all natural ;-P

 

Ok, since I'm the one who stirred up the comfrey patch, I'll reply first.

 

Yes, it is invasive, but you can grow it in an area of the garden with

borders, like you might do for mint.

 

You can use the leaf or root for your problem

 

True, 'allantoin' is frequently a synthetic chemical when sold by

companies. It is very valuable in the cosmetics industry, but nothing is as

good as the real allantoin you'll extract from the plant. Herbalists tend

to look at the whole plant, not just a single chemical constituent.

 

>Thirdly - I do have some dried comfrey root (whole not powdered)

>purchased here in Sweden. But from what I have read, the allatonium

>can't be extracted with water, but tincturing is fine. Hmm, is it

>extractable in oil??? If I was to make a healing balm, I can't put

>tincture in it can I??

 

Allantoin is completely water soluble. Just interested, where did you read

that it could only be extracted by alcohol? That is just weird.

 

Tinctures can be put ina balm, you just have to cook off the alcohol, the

active ingredient wil be left. Yes, comfrey is soluble in oil, too. And

alcohol.

 

You sure are asking a lot of questions that are basic herbalism, so,

first, I'm going to point you to botanical.com, particularly:

http://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/c/comfre92.html

 

Mrs. Grieve's book is a classic, and we are fortunate it is online.

 

Here's another great herbal resource online:

http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed/

 

I'm surprised you don't have herbal suppliers in Sweden, either by mail

order or in shops. Have you checked around? We can go into health food

stores here and get the stuff off the shelf.

http://member.newsguy.com/~herblady

[Guest guest]

> Yes, it is invasive, but you can grow it in an area of the garden

with

> borders, like you might do for mint.

Then I just put them in with the mints next year and they can fight

for the space LOL

> True, 'allantoin' is frequently a synthetic chemical when sold by

> companies. It is very valuable in the cosmetics industry, but

nothing is as

> good as the real allantoin you'll extract from the plant.

OK - any ideas on where to get the real stuff?

 

Herbalists tend

> to look at the whole plant, not just a single chemical constituent.

Thant's more to my liking I think, using all that is usable.

 

> Allantoin is completely water soluble. Just interested, where did

you read

> that it could only be extracted by alcohol? That is just weird.

 

HAHA, not only the heat does strange things to braincells, ask me

living in the cold - my brain is mush anyhow lol. I didn't remeber it

correctely (when will I ever?) - the site (Shenet - A Swedish

cosmetic info page) said that it was water and alchohol sulable, but

didn't do very good in oil.

> You sure are asking a lot of questions that are basic herbalism,

Jepp - I want to learn and learn some more, even thoguht I have some

books on herbalism. I will go and look at the websites you suggested

in a moment.

>

> I'm surprised you don't have herbal suppliers in Sweden, either by

mail> order or in shops. Have you checked around? We can go into

health food> stores here and get the stuff off the shelf.

 

Yep, I have checked - no site in Sweden carries the dried leaves -

sigh. There is a herbal shop in the centre of Stockholm, but not even

they carries the leaves. I think that herbs for exteral use is not a

very big thing here, they mostly carries dried herbs to make teas

from I think. In our local health food store I have found calendula

and mint among other things, but no comfrey leaf to be found :-(

 

I can't for the love of me understand why it is so hard to come by

good stuff on this side of the pond, I'm gonna be bankrupt soon from

all the importing that I do from the US. You knwo what - the customs

got hold of my box from a EO supplier (not Butch this time) and even

thoguht they was kind enought to state samples on the invoice, I

still had to pay 25% tax and a whole lot of fees on the sample " cost "

of 12 USD and the shipping cost, since it exceeded the limit of like

22USD (200SEK) that we can import stuff from outside the EU for.

GRRRRRRRR.

 

Fragrant Blessings,

Ylva

Ylva