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Comfrey

(also referred to as...)

Common Comfrey, Knitbone, Russian Comfrey

Latin Name: Symphytum officinalis, S. uplandicum

Family: Boraginaceae

 
Description

"Comfrey" comes from the Latin confirma which mean "with strength". symphtum is from the Greek word "symphtos", meaning "to unite". Both names refer to the use of these plants in healing fractures. In the 1653 "the English physician" Nicholas Culpeper wrote, "special good for ruptures and broken bone; yea it is said to be so powerful to consolidate and knit together, that if they be boiled with dissevered pieces of flesh in a pot, it will join them together again". He also recommended it for sore breasts and hemorrhoids, for which purposes it is still used by the pharmaceutical industry today, but in a synthesized form.

Comfrey is native to Europe and Asia and has been naturalized in North America. It prefers rich wet meadows and ditches and moist to wet soil in sun or partial shade.

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