![]() ![]() Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Comfrey is particularly contraindicated during pregnancy and lactation, in infants, and in people with liver, kidney, or vascular diseases. In 2001, the United States Food and Drug Administration issued a ban of comfrey products marketed for internal use, and a warning label for those intended for external use. In modern herbalism, comfrey is most commonly used topically. Liver toxicity is associated with consuming this plant or its extracts. Pyrrolizidine alkaloids are responsible for comfrey's hepatotoxicity. The tradition in different cultures and languages suggest a common belief in its usefulness for mending bones.Ĭomfrey contains mixed phytochemicals in varying amounts, including allantoin, mucilage, saponins, tannins, pyrrolizidine alkaloids, and inulin, among others. Similarly, the common French name is consoude, meaning to weld together. Phytochemistry, folk medicine, and toxicity įolk medicine names for comfrey include knitbone, boneset, and the derivation of its Latin name Symphytum (from the Greek symphis, meaning growing together of bones, and phyton, a plant), referring to its ancient uses. Offsets can also be purchased by mail order from specialist nurseries in order to initially build up a stock of plants. The original plant will quickly recover, and each piece can be replanted with the growing points just below the soil surface, and will quickly grow into new plants. This removes the crown, which can then be split into pieces. The gardener can produce "offsets" from mature, strongly growing plants by driving a spade horizontally through the leaf clumps about 7 cm (2.8 in) below the soil surface. JSTOR ( May 2018) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)īocking 14 is sterile, and therefore will not set seed (one of its advantages over other cultivars as it will not spread out of control) thus, it is propagated from root cuttings.Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. This section needs additional citations for verification. Hills, the founder of the Henry Doubleday Research Association (the organic gardening organization itself named after Henry Doubleday, who first introduced Russian comfrey into Britain in the nineteenth century) following trials at Bocking, Essex. The Russian comfrey 'Bocking 14' cultivar was developed during the 1950s by Lawrence D. Russian comfrey ( Symphytum × uplandicum) Flowers of Russian comfrey Cultivation peregrinum) – Russian comfrey, healing herb, blackwort, bruisewort, wallwort, gum plant Symphytum grandiflorum – creeping comfrey.Symphytum caucasicum – Caucasian comfrey.Symphytum brachycalyx – Palestine comfrey.Symphytum asperum – prickly comfrey, rough comfrey.They are not to be confused with Andersonglossum virginianum, known as wild comfrey, another member of the borage family. × uplandicum, are used in gardening and herbal medicine. officinale, Symphytum grandiflorum, and S. Some species and hybrids, particularly S. Here on the West Coast Comfrey does not seem to spread outside of the garden.Symphytum is a genus of flowering plants in the borage family, Boraginaceae, known by the common name comfrey (pronounced / ˈ k ʌ m f r i/). There is widely found in meadows and waste places. Take care in planting Common Comfrey as it is considered an invasive plant in the eastern U.S. It is easily adaptable to many soils, but prefers those which are moist and fertile. Grow Common Comfrey in full sun or partial shade in hot climates. Repeated ingestion can lead to serious liver damage and death. ![]() Roots appear to be more toxic than stems and leaves. Also, new plants can be propagated by dividing the roots of established plants.Īll parts of common comfrey contain toxic alkaloids. Flower color depends on variety and can be either pink fading to blue, white or creamy yellow. They form in distinctive curled clusters having an appearance similar to that of a scorpion's tail. Flowers are bell shaped and either yellow or blue. While they are still bristly they lack the petioles as seen on the lower portions of the plants.įlowers are borne on 2’-3’ tall flowering stems. Towards the top of the plant the leaves are smaller. It bears bristly lower leaves, up to 12 inches long, that are attached to winged leaf stalks (petioles) that emerge from the base of the plant. This herbaceous perennial can grow to 5’ in both height and width at maturity. It is rich in calcium, potassium, phosphorus, vitamins and trace elements. Description Common Comfrey is best known as culinary herb used to make teas and poultices out of its leaves. ![]()
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