Comfrey, even more confusion ;-)

August 11, 2004

Thanks Chris for more inlightement, but I confess - the post made me

end up with even more questionmarks.

The comfrey mentioned in my Swedish herbal books is the Symphytum

officinale - for producing alatoin and being the one used for

heraling. And as you said - it's the root that is mentioned there. I

have bought some alatoin powder fromt he one and only Swedsih

suplier to the homemade cosmetic circles - Crearome, until I found

out that it's not natural derived at all. So - I got some dried root

and made a tincture and have been using it with success. But the

thing is - the alatoin in the root can not be derived in oil (as far

as I have understood this). Therefore kind of hard to use in balms...

Anyhow, since I got to know so many nice Americans :-D and they was

using the dried leaves, I searched here and there, but didn't find

any here at all. In the end I got some from a very generous American

online friend and have used it infused in oil.

The Symphytum x.uplandicum is called " fodder comfrey " here, don't

ask me why, but my gues is that it was used to feed the livestock...

Now I ask you of better knowledge than me, does the Symphytum

x.uplandicum contain any alatonin in it's leaves??? And what kind of

comrey are you using over there??

The mind boggles on this topic and I knwo from my gardening on-line

forum, that there is very hard to discern which live plant is what...

Fragrant Blessings,

Ylva

August 12, 2004

HI Ylva,

Both varieties of comfrey that you mention produce allantoin. They both

have medicinal value.

Here is a snippet from Perdue Univ. about the origins of comfrey:

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/comfrey.html

Three plant species in the genus Symphytum are relevant to the crop

known as comfrey. Wild or common comfrey, Symphytum officinale L., is

native to England and extends throughout most of Europe into Central

Asia and Western Siberia. Prickly or rough comfrey [s. asperum Lepechin

(S. asperrimum Donn)], named for its bristly or hairy leaves, was

brought to Britain from Russia about 1800. Quaker, Russian, or blue

comfrey [s. × uplandicum Nyman (S. peregrinum Lebed.)] originated as a

natural hybrid of S. officinale L. and S. asperum Lepechin. This hybrid

was called Russian or Caucasian comfrey in reference to its country of

origin. Cuttings of this hybrid were shipped to Canada in 1954 and it

was named Quaker comfrey, after the religion of Henry Doubleday, the

British researcher responsible for promoting comfrey as a food and

forage. The majority of comfrey grown in the United States can be traced

to this introduction.

The full article is quite interesting and I highly recommend it for

reading!

Both Rosemary Gladstar and Susun Weed are quite fond of the S. ×

uplandicum variety of comfrey.

The more commonly used comfrey here is S. officinale

And here is a very good, in depth article on comfrey and using it in

salves, etc ..

http://www.create.org/elchai/hlibcomf.htm

I wish I had more time to go into it all right now, but I am running

around like a chicken without a head as the saying goes I hope this

did help clear up some of the confusion for ya!

*Smile*

Chris (list mom)

http://www.alittleolfactory.com

ruby_mama2001 [ruby_mama2001]