Comfrey - Useful Substances And The Use Of Comfrey Medicinal Recipes

2024 Author: Josephine Shorter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 21:43

Comfrey

Useful properties and recipes of medicinal comfrey

Botanical characteristics of comfrey

Comfrey is a perennial plant that grows no higher than 1 meter in height. The plant has a black rhizome with long roots, short and powerful. On branched and erect stems, covered with hard hairs, there are rough leaves - large, alternate and lanceolate. The upper leaves are sessile, while the lower ones are located on short petioles. Comfrey flowers are collected in drooping inflorescences-curls. Comfrey buds are small, reddish-purple, similar to bells, but there are also other colors.

Comfrey fruit is a large nut, black, containing one seed. Comfrey blooms throughout the summer. The fruits of the plant ripen from mid-July to early September. This medicinal plant is often found in Europe, Japan, Asia, and Africa. Comfrey can also be seen in New Zealand and North America. Comfrey is a moisture-loving plant, so it grows most often on river banks, in fields, next to swamps and streams.

Useful properties of comfrey

Comfrey contains tannins, resins, starch, choline, sugars, mucus and many other substances useful to the human body.

Comfrey has anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial effects. This plant is an excellent antispasmodic. Comfrey is used for bleeding as a means of stopping the blood. Comfrey is used to prepare preparations that help cure coughs, soften and have an enveloping effect. Comfrey promotes bone regeneration.

In addition, the plant contains substances that affect the tone of the body, increasing its level. Comfrey is recommended for people with high blood pressure, it improves the digestion process.

Do not forget that the comfrey contains poisonous substances that paralyze the nervous system.

Comfrey use

Comfrey is used as a remedy in the treatment of osteochondrosis, bone tuberculosis, gout, arthritis, arthrosis and inflammation of the periosteum. Comfrey is most often used in folk medicine in the form of baths, compresses, ointments and washings, which help in the treatment of bruises, scrofula, skin diseases, fractures, wounds and ulcers. Comfrey tincture on alcohol is also used in the form of a compress for inflammatory processes.

For inflammation of the oral mucosa, diseases of the kidneys and lungs, an infusion of comfrey in milk is used. It is prepared as follows: we take 10 grams of comfrey roots and fill them with a glass of milk, put in the oven for 6 hours to evaporate. The ready-made infusion should be taken three times a day, 1 tablespoon.

Epistaxis can be stopped by soaking a cotton swab in comfrey root juice.

A tumor of the uterus can be treated with comfrey tincture. This tincture is prepared easily and quickly. To prepare it, take 10 grams of plant roots and fill them with 100 ml of alcohol. We leave to infuse for 14 days. Take a ready-made tincture before meals, 15 drops, which are previously diluted in 100 ml of water or boiling water.

Decoction for external use. Take 1 tablespoon of plant roots and pour 100 ml of boiling water over it. Put the composition on fire for 10 minutes. After straining, cool the broth and make lotions, compresses, rinsing for skin inflammation, purulent wounds and fractures.

Decoction for gastric ulcer. For its preparation we take 20 grams of comfrey root and 40 grams of the following herbs: St. John's wort, chicory, plantain, knotweed, calendula (flowers) and horsetail. We mix everything and pour two glasses of boiling water. Put the composition on fire for 10 minutes. Having filtered the finished broth, it is taken 100 ml three times a day before meals.

Comfrey ointment for external tumors. We prepare it like this: take 1 tablespoon of fresh plant roots and grind them to a state of gruel. Add to this mass 1 tablespoon of pork fat. We put the composition in a water bath for half an hour. When the mass has cooled down a little, add 5 grams of camphor oil to it. Tumors are smeared with this ointment several times a day.

Comfrey poultices. To do this, you need to take the fresh leaves of the plant and grind them. Chopped leaves are applied to sore joints, lower back. It is best to do this procedure at night, bandaging the finished poultice with a bandage.

Contraindications to the use of comfrey

Given the fact that the plant contains poisons, it should only be used with extreme caution. In no case should pregnant women use drugs from this plant. Before using comfrey preparations, you should consult your doctor.

The author of the article: Sokolova Nina Vladimirovna | Phytotherapist

Education: Diploma in "General Medicine" and "Therapy" received at the Pirogov University (2005 and 2006). Advanced training at the Department of Phytotherapy at the Peoples' Friendship University of Moscow (2008).