from which records have been traced of a presumably age-old belief that the
reddish form must be used for healing men and the white one for healing
women if success is to be assured (a gender distinction similar to that
recorded for the two bryonies and several other
‘paired’ plants as well).
By far the commonest use of comfrey, re-
corded from most parts of the British Isles—
except apparently the southern half of Wales—
has been for treating injuries to limbs and
ligaments, in particular, sprains (twice as
often mentioned as fractures). Identified with
a herb mentioned by Dioscorides, whose name
for it passed into Latin as Symphytum,grow-
together-plant, the plant is rich in allantoin,
which promotes healing in connective
tissues through the proliferation of
new cells. Not for nothing was it
widely known as ‘knitbone’, a name
which still lingers on in places.
Va rious parts of the plant yield a
strongly astringent oily juice, but for
treating injuries the roots are most
often preferred. The usual process is
to clean, peel, pound or grate and boil
these, in order to extract a thick paste
which is then applied like plaster of Paris.
Alternatively, the leaves and/or stem are
heated and put on as a poultice. A third,
much rarer method is to mix the juice
with lard and rub the ointment in. Of
141 records traced from the British
Isles as a whole for uses of comfrey for non-
veterinary therapeutic purposes, no fewer
than 60 are accounted for by sprains and
fractures. But records for swellings of other
kinds as well as for bruises and internal bleed-
ing are perhaps logically combined with
those, in which case 85, or well over half,
208 Symphytum officinale
Symphytum officinale, common
comfrey (Brunfels 1530, p. 76)