Food and Drug Administration instituted its ban on comfrey, Dr. Bruce Ames found that comfrey leaf tea was less carcinogenic than beer. One study published in the journal Science by Dr. They argue that the plant is being subjected to a standard that most pharmaceuticals would fail. Use on open wounds is discouraged.īut some researchers insist that comfrey only presents a danger with prolonged use at high doses. Commission E (Germany’s FDA for herbal medicine) only endorses topical comfrey for blunt injuries. Even external use is suspect in some circles as PAs can also be absorbed through the skin. These studies led to current conventional wisdom, which dictates that comfrey be restricted to external use only. In one often-referenced study, baby rats were given the equivalent of many times their weight of comfrey leaf before they demonstrated liver damage. Instead, trials focused on rats injected with isolated alkaloids or fed enormous amounts of comfrey extract. While comfrey does contain trace amounts of PAs, studies showing problems did not involve realistic doses of the whole herb. However, considering the evidence used to justify the comfrey scare, it seems like an overreaction. By the turn of the new millennium, regulators in the United States, Canada, Europe, and elsewhere banned all comfrey products marketed for internal use. In the 1980s, comfrey’s benevolent reputation took a drastic turn for the worse when researchers discovered compounds in the plant called pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs), which damaged rat livers.Ĭonsumers panicked, and supplement makers pulled the herb from their formulas. As a result, you can harvest from the same plant several times a year. You can chop it down to the root and a few weeks later it will completely regenerate.

You can see how comfrey makes our cells grow by watching the plant grow. Allantoin makes cells grow, giving rise to new collagen, connective tissue, and bone. Researchers have identified a compound called allantoin which explains at least some of how comfrey heals. Randomized controlled trials have shown that topical use is effective at treating injury, arthritis, and inflammation. One of comfrey’s many folk names, boneknit, says it all, and modern studies have demonstrated that comfrey is a medicine with genuine merit. Osteoporosis Is Scurvy of the Bone, Not Calcium Deficiency

Symphytum officinale for osteoporosis