Comfrey In The Garden And In The Home Medicine Cabinet

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Our ancestors knew about the healing power of the larkspur. This modest grass with small, bluish and slightly drooping bells can decorate any garden meadow and flower bed. But what else is comfrey useful for?

Comfrey (larkspur) is a very useful plant for organic gardening. It blooms in blue, purple and white flowers and is distinguished by its thin long leaves and black roots. It is a perennial, forest, herbaceous plant belonging to the borage family. Most often it is found in European and Asian countries. Comfrey prefers moist fertile soils.

Traditional medicine around the world has long known about this wonderful herb. For many years, the roots and leaves of comfrey have been used for the manufacture of medicines. They reduce pain in inflamed joints, help with burns, bruises and sprains. These drugs are used to treat inflammatory diseases such as arthritis and gout.

However, comfrey is a toxic plant (due to the content of pyrrolizidine alkaloids that damage the liver), harmful to humans and animals, so it is better to apply it externally. You can grow a larkspur on your own. This is not difficult to do, since the plant is not particularly picky.

Ways to use comfrey in the garden

1. Activating the compost heap

With the help of comfrey, bacteria can be activated in the compost heap. The plant contains a lot of nitrogen, which makes it a bioactivator. Autumn foliage, together with comfrey, is able to balance the amount of nitrogen and carbon, which contributes to the rapid decomposition of organic matter. It is only necessary to chop the foliage and comfrey with garden shears, put in water, mix until a homogeneous paste is obtained. Pour the resulting solution into compost.

2. Growing seedlings

Together with the planting of perennial plants, berry bushes and fruit trees, it is useful to bury comfrey leaves in each planting hole. During decomposition, they enrich the soil with useful substances, helping the seedlings to grow stronger and develop.

3. Plant nutrition

Compost tea provides nutrients for established crops. Comfrey is soaked in water, and then the plants are watered with this solution. Fresh comfrey leaves are soaked for 3-6 weeks. After it is infused, you need to dilute the solution with water and leave it for another three days, stirring regularly. Then the resulting fertilizer is filtered and the plants are watered with it.

Comfrey in the home medicine cabinet

For medicinal purposes, it is best to prepare oil from comfrey. It's easy to do it yourself and at home. For this, the roots and leaves of a dry plant are used. They are collected, washed well and dried. It is recommended to dig up comfrey roots in dry weather, shaking them off the ground. For cooking you need:

* Comfrey leaves in the amount of 200 grams

* Comfrey roots - 100 grams

* Olive oil - about 400 ml (to cover the roots and leaves completely).

Comfrey oil is prepared as follows:

The roots and leaves are crushed, placed in a glass jar, and filled with oil. The jar is closed with a tight lid and shaken. Then it is left to languish for a month. The oil is then filtered through a clean cloth and drained into a dark glass bottle for better storage. Such a remedy is actively used in herbal medicine for the healing of body tissues, including bone (hence the name of the plant - larkspur). Oil is used to lubricate wounds, bruises and other injuries of the body.

Getting rid of blisters

Blisters that appear from poison ivy or nettle are wiped with fresh comfrey leaves from inflammation and for the speedy restoration of the skin.

Rapid wound healing

Comfrey allows you to quickly heal closed wounds, restoring the structure of damaged tissue. The leaves of the plant are crushed, mixed with comfrey oil and applied to the wound.

Getting rid of skin rashes

Comfrey is often a part of creams, ointments and balms used to treat skin rashes. But do not use this plant to treat open wounds. If there are no open lesions on the skin, it is helpful to take a comfrey bath. You can first make an infusion of plants and pour it into the bath (1-2 cups of steep infusion per bath). After such a procedure, the skin will become more beautiful and healthier, skin rashes and itching will disappear.

Soothing pain and inflammation

Painful and inflamed infections are treated with comfrey poultices. The crushed leaves and stems of the plant are mixed with almond or olive oil. Cotton cloth is dipped into this tool, cooled in the refrigerator for a while, and then applied to the inflamed skin for half an hour.

Relief of leg fatigue

It is useful to take foot baths from comfrey to relieve leg fatigue and restore strength. For the infusion of the larkspur, you need to boil water, add fresh comfrey leaves (a handful to 2 cups of water) or crushed dry root of a plant (a tablespoon to 2 cups of water). Boil them for five minutes, and then insist for another 10 minutes.

Treating muscles and fractures

Comfrey oil and plant leaves are applied to fractures and affected muscles to ensure rapid healing.