Comfrey

Symphytum officinale

HRB-0084Entry “COMFREY” in the 1850 textIn Culpeper’s 1652 first edition

Open in the Concordance

Old claims, quoted verbatim: not medical advice. A warning sits above the claims and never hides them; no warning does not mean safe, only that no source here has flagged the plant.

⚠ Poisonous · Taken insidePyrrolizidine alkaloids. Case reports tie eating or drinking it to liver veno-occlusive disease, and in 2001 the FDA advised pulling comfrey products for internal use.The EMA accepts comfrey root on the skin for minor sprains and bruises (traditional use).EFSA: Echimidine, Intermedine, Lycopsamine and 2 more

Historical correspondence. Ruled by Saturn, by Culpeper. A traditional astrological assignment, kept apart from the modern evidence; it is not a finding.

Culpeper’s claims about it: 9, under 9 headings, 1 where he says it harms or causes

  1. AguesCLM-000019
    A syrup made thereof is very effectual for all those inward griefs and hurts, and the distilled water for the same purpose also, and for outward wounds and sores in the fleshy or sinewy part of the body whatsoever, as also to take away the fits of agues, and to allay the sharpness of humours.
    QUO-000019Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  2. Bleeding (to stay)CLM-000148
    The Great Comfrey helps those that spit blood, or make a bloody urine.
    QUO-000126Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  3. BruisesCLM-000362
    The root boiled in water or wine, and the decoction drank, helps all inward hurts, bruises, wounds, and ulcer of the lungs, and causes the phlegm that oppresses them to be easily spit forth:
    QUO-000311Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  4. GoutCLM-0023171850 index, p. 54
    The roots of Comfrey taken fresh, beaten small, and spread upon leather, and laid upon any place troubled with the gout, doth presently give ease of the pains;
    QUO-001422Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  5. InflammationsCLM-000899
    also to repress the over much bleeding of the hæmorrhoids, to cool the inflammation of the parts thereabouts, and to give ease of pains.
    QUO-000691Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  6. LungsCLM-001248
    The root boiled in water or wine, and the decoction drank, helps all inward hurts, bruises, wounds, and ulcer of the lungs, and causes the phlegm that oppresses them to be easily spit forth:
    QUO-000311Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  7. RupturesCLM-001458
    and is special good for ruptures and broken bones;
    QUO-000993Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  8. UlcersCLM-001927
    The root boiled in water or wine, and the decoction drank, helps all inward hurts, bruises, wounds, and ulcer of the lungs, and causes the phlegm that oppresses them to be easily spit forth:
    QUO-000311Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  9. WoundsCLM-002172
    The root boiled in water or wine, and the decoction drank, helps all inward hurts, bruises, wounds, and ulcer of the lungs, and causes the phlegm that oppresses them to be easily spit forth:
    QUO-000311Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance

Source

Nicholas Culpeper, The Complete Herbal, a new edition (London: Thomas Kelly, 1850). Project Gutenberg eBook #49513. SRC-CUL-1850

Quotations are verbatim from the 1850 text, line breaks joined. Modern research and the European regulator’s verdict on each claim are on the Concordance page, kept apart from this historical record.