I have a lot of Comfrey and I would like to make comfrey salve with it. Does anyone have the recipe for it? Thanks, June

-- June Blue (Jblue@telecom.dgs.ca.gov), August 10, 2000

Answers

See if your local library can borrow a copy of Comfrey: Fodder, Food & Remedy by Lawrence D. Hills. He is British.

In it he says in the item on Comfrey Ointment: The H.D.R.A. has sold many thousands of tins of comfrey ointment made by pharmaceutical chemists, and there are many other makes all of which should be used as directed by the makers. No recipe is given for comfrey ointment because of the risk that the proteins will break down and undesirable bacteria get in. Making comfrey tea and poultices for immediate use with boiling water involves safe sterilization, but making an ointment and keeping it could mean a serious risk of infection especially when used with sores or open wounds.

Mr. Hill may have been a bit biased, but he pretty well considered Comfrey to be a wonder plant.

-- Ken S. (scharabo@aol.com), August 10, 2000.

Hi,

Heres one of the few comfrey paste recipies I have. I'll try to find the others on disk this weekend when I have time. Hope this helps.

HEALING SALVE

All herbs in this recipe are measured as dry herbs.

(T=Tablespoon)

4 cups olive oil (ozonated would be supreme, but extra virgin works great) 1 cup coconut oil 4 T. comfrey root 4 T. comfrey leaf 3 T yellow dock 3 T. burdock root 4 T. elderflower blossoms 1 T. myrrh gum powder 1 T. goldemseal root powder 4 T. calendula blossoms 4 T. plaintain 2 T. chamomile 4 T. Chickweed Beeswax (You will need at least 1/4 cup, but have extra)

Heat oven to 200 degrees.

Place the oils into a large ovenproof casserole dish. Add each of the herbs to the oil. Stir well.

Place cassererole dish in the oven. Do not cover. Stir mixture every 30 minutes. Leave in the oven for 2 hours at this temperature. Now, turn the oven temperature down to "WARM" and just leave it in the oven overnight if you started it in the evening. Or leave it in the oven for about 8 hours if you are making during the day.

Remove from the oven. When the oil is cool enough for you to be able to placeyour finger in it and it not feel too hot, then you can start straining it.

Take a large piece of cheese cloth and fold it double. Place it into a medium size bowl and carefully begin to pour the herbs and oil into it and twist the cheese cloth and herbs into a ball to squeeze out as much oil as possible. This takes some strong hands so you may need to ask your strong husband to help.

Now, pour the strained herbal oil into a stainless steel pan and heat up JUST enough to melt the beeswax you will need to put in. DO NOT LET THE OIL GET TOO HOT OR IT WILL DEVELOP A BURNED SMELL AND RUIN THE HERBS.

It is hard to know just how much beeswax to use with each batch. For this recipe, start with 1/4 cup and go from there. After you have the 1/4 beeswax melted in the oil (just set it in the oil and stir (like you do when you are melting ice cubes in water) then test it by putting some of the mixture on a spoon and rubbing an ice cube under the bottom of the spoon until the salve is room temperature--not cold. Is the thickened salve now at the consistency you want? The colder it is, the harder it will get, so let it be just at room temperature to gauge the right feel of it. If you want it to be stiffer, add a little more beeswax and keep testing until it feels right to you.

You can usually find beeswax at a good health food store such as Whole Foods Market. If you are having a difficult time getting finding it, let me know.

To clean up your utensils that you used with the beeswax, just heat them and wipe very hard and thorough with paper towels. When they "look" clean, use very hot, soapy water and a scrub pad to get off the rest, which isn't very difficult.

To store your salves, you can use any kind of container you want. Baby food jars work really well.

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), August 10, 2000.

A friend recently taught me how to make a salve. The main ingredient was plaintain, there was comfrey too. We used 4 oz. of beeswaxWe put benzoin in it to preserve it. She also receommends storing the extra jars in the freezer. We had a wonderful time that day. Tinctures are next. Isn't wonderful to make your own medicine?

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), August 10, 2000.

A few years ago, I was bitten by a brown recluse spider. When the doctor told me to come back in a week or so and he'd cut out the dead flesh, I went right home to see what I had at home that was more effective than modern medicine. I made a salve of beeswax, benzion, comfrey, burdock root, and goldenseal. Granted this stuff stinks and will stain clothing but it is very effective. I did not have to have any surgery and over the years we used that salve for all kinds of things from snake bites to hot spots on the animals. I wish I had known about Cindy's suggestion to store extra in the freezer.

-- Jackie (Jlynne058@cs.com), August 12, 2000.

My salve usually contains plantain, comfrey, jewelweed, "vicks" plant, and mint. As well as olive oil, benzoin, beeswax and vit.E oil. And occ. aloe vera juice.

To test consistency, put a plate in the freezer before starting to mix. When ready to test, dollop a small teaspoon-full onto the plate and check the texture. Adjust as you prefer.

-- Anne (HT@HM.com), August 12, 2000.

All of the above suggestions sound good. I would use beeswax and tea tree oil with the comfrey. There are natural preservatives that could prolong the life of your salve such as grapefruit seed oil, tocopherols (Vitamin E) or carrot root oil.

-- Linda Al-Sangar (alsangal@brentwood-tn.org), August 13, 2000.