Tag: comfrey

Shop-Bought Comfrey Is Ruined Medicinally, And Is Inedible

Natural Remedy Gone Wrong

The old, traditional comfrey with a broad leaf was a great healer, and it was edible.  Recently, I have tried eating a shop-bought, genetically modified comfrey, which I now have in my garden, adding a small leaf of it to a mound of silver-beet, just as I used to do in the old days.  It gave me a mild stomach-ache for several days.

This new comfrey is dry, compared to the old, healing comfrey, which dripped with silica-rich mucilage when you broke off a stem.  Modern comfrey has almost no silica-containing mucilage.

Shop-bought comfrey is recommended by plant shops as a companion plant to fruit trees, especially apple trees, and for this purpose, modern comfrey will still be useful, since the roots help break up clay soils, and bring up nutrients for the apple roots to feed on.  Shop-bought comfrey is still not as good for this purpose as the tradional comfrey, though, because of the devitalized nature of this modern comfrey.

In the 1990’s, traditional, healing comfrey was banned in New Zealand and all over the western world where the reign of the big agri-chemical companies over agriculture was taking off.  These giants began to get governments on board with this comfrey ban, and also their campaign for promoting Round-Up, which contains glyphosate, a probable cancer-causer, according to WHO. Councils all over the world have been encouraged to erradicate comfrey, and use this toxic herbicide, which, conveniently for Monsanto, works alongside their genetically modified plants and seeds without destroying them.

I heard on Radio NZ National news two weeks ago that the amount of glyphosate found in our foods has increased 500 times since 1994, which was when Monsanto’s RoundUp-Ready seeds were introduced into agriculture.

The reason comfrey was banned, our health authorities said, was that comfrey had caused cancer in pigs, due to the high allantoin content, a cell-proliferant.  I wonder – did the researchers feed only comfrey to pigs over several months in order to make them sick?  Or did they invent this pig cancer as a reason to rid the world of one of its most powerful healing remedies?

This allantoin, which has been removed in genetically modified comfrey, is the magic ingredient in traditional comfrey which made comfrey an excellent remedy for burns, abrasions, bruises, intestinal irritations, cancer, arthritis, asthma, or just about any complaint you could think of.

Traditional comfrey is also very high in silica, which is another great healing agent.

But modern, shop-bought comfrey was genetically modified to deliberately remove the healing allantoin, and also the high silica content, a  project which I am sure the pharmaceutical companies would have supported.  Nowadays, medicinal comfrey can only be bought through medical-pharmaceutical channels.

Modern, genetically modified comfrey is marketed as an improved species because it does not self-seed and spread. which the old comfrey was inclined to do. although, really, it never was a problem in my gardens.

Soil and Health did an article on this subject of this genetically modified comfrey in the early 2000’s, when suddenly we found that comfrey was available once more in the plant shops.  They found that the allantoin had been removed, and that the silica content had been greatly reduced.

Banning comfrey was a very clever move, in order to gain the market for a comfrey which people were duped into believing was still a healing plant, and one which now would not spread.  But modern comfrey has sadly been ruined as far as any medicinal use goes.

Banning comfrey for a few years, and getting government agencies to destroy any comfrey growing in wild places, and forbidding people to have it in their gardens, meant that the old, traditional,  healing comfrey died out, leaving the market path open for whatever clever and unscrupulous agriculture corporation was responsible, to introduce their ‘better’ variety of comfrey. and make us pay for it.

I also suspect, and I really hope I am wrong, that the genetically modified comfrey has been bred to cross-pollinate with natural, traditional comfrey and dominate it, so that the new plant will be the genetically modified variety.  I was sure I had traditional comfrey in my garden, but now all the plants look the same.  They are a genetically modified variety.

I would advise not to eat comfrey any more, unless you are sure you have the tradional, broad-leafed, healing comfrey.  I am sure that the agri-companies have stepped up an ingredient in genetically modified comfrey to make it inedible.

And as far as using shop-bought comfrey as a healing herb, I think you might just as well use grass.  Although the agri-chemical companies have been tampering with this also for many years.

Comfrey Herbal Ointment Recipes For Burns Bites Bones And Skin

Natural Herbal Remedies

Comfrey is a powerful healer. It contains compounds and minerals, such as silica and allantoin, which greatly accelerate the healing process. It is one of the few herbs which is thought to contain Vitamin B12. (see Heinerman ‘Miracle Healing Herbs’)

The silica in Comfrey can promote hair growth,  and aid bone and teeth development.  Mineral-rich Comfrey has also been used in some natural treatments for cancer and other diseases.

Using Comfrey in salves can aid the healing of many skin troubles, such as cuts, scrapes, and bruises.  It may even be just the thing for uncomplicated cases of eczema due to allergic reaction to household cleaners and detergents.

Comfrey is not only good for the skin:  It can help to heal bone fractures as well, hence its well-known names, Knitbone, or Stitchwort. Comfrey has been used to help knit bones together since ancient times.

Comfrey salves or compounds might also be found useful in cases of arthritis, when the joints have become inflamed and sore.

This first home made remedy uses Comfrey, Plantain, Calendula, Rosemary and Lavender as its base herbs.  If you can find some Yarrow flowers to dry, then you could use those as well.

All these herbs have antiseptic qualities, and when they are used together, they become very effective indeed.

The second recipe uses just three herbs and no beeswax.

You need to find some of the old traditional type of Comfrey if you want your ointment to have the maximum healing benefits.  Traditional Comfrey, Symphytum officinale, contains allantoin, which is a cell-proliferant.  Modern types of Comfrey have been bred to eliminate  allantoin, and some are  self-sterile.  These hybridized plants do not have such good healing effects as the old-fashioned Symphytum officinale, with its allantoin and high potassium phosphorous content.

Merrilyn’s new book is available on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.ca/Cancer-And-Good-Health-Notebook-ebook/dp/B01DHMH6DG

Recipe Number One

Comfrey Salve Or Ointment

Make sure all your herbs are dried before using.  If they are used fresh, your resulting ointment will not keep so well.

You will need:

Two and a half cups of olive oil

1 tablespoonful of dried lavender flowers

1 tablespoonful of dried yarrow flowers

1 tablespoonful of dried calendula or marigold flowers.

1 tablespoonful of dried self-heal flowers and leaf.  This is optional, but worth putting in if you have it.  Leave out if you cannot find any to use. This is a wee purple flower which grows in lawns and around the garden. Self-heal is also known as prunella vulgaris.

2 tablespoonfuls of dried plaintain leaf.  Use the smaller leafed variety of plaintain which grows in lawns, known as ribbed plaintain.

2 tablespoonsful of dried comfrey leaf

2 tablespoonsful of dried rosemary leaf

3/4 cup of beeswax, to add at the very end of the process, after the herbs have been infused in the oil.

Method: Put all your herbs into a screwtop jar, big enough to hold the oil.  Use a little more oil if necessary, enough to cover the herbs completely.

Infuse in a warm sunny spot for 21 days, shaking a little every day.

After 21 days is up, drain off the oil. Put your infused oil into the top of a double boiler.  Alternatively, you could use a bowl sitting over a slightly smaller size saucepan, with boiling water in the lower saucepan.

Heat up the oil in the double boiler for 10 minutes.

Now add the beeswax to the hot oil.  Stir until the beeswax has thoroughly dissolved.  Take off the bowl which now has the melted beeswax in it.   Whip all together thoroughly, stirring as the mixture cools. Pour into sterile jars.  Wait until the salve mixture has cooled down completely, then screw on the lids.

Store in a cool place.

Recipe Number Two

Comfrey And Honey Compound

Mix 1/2  a cup of olive oil with an equal amount of raw honey.

Into this mix three tablespoons of powdered comfrey herb,  two tablespoons of powdered calendula flowers and one tablespoonful of either dried self-heal or plaintain leaf.  You could use both these if you have them.

Put into an airtight jar and use as needed for sore joints, and skin abrasions.

Store in a cool place.

How Poisonous Is Comfrey And How Can I Use It?

Natural Remedy

Have you ever heard of anybody who has been poisoned, either from eating Comfrey, or from drinking Comfrey tea?  I haven’t at least not with the common garden variety known as Symphytum officinalis.

It is possible that some Comfreys should be avoided. Dr Vogel mentions in his book ‘The Nature Doctor’ that there are 20 varieties of Comfrey, and that the wild Comfrey which grows across Europe should be taken only in small amounts because of its action on the central nervous system.

However, Dr Vogel feels so strongly about the herb, he says that Comfrey should be ‘lifted from obscurity and used more widely’, ‘because of its excellent medicinal effects.’

In my experience, the traditional, untampered with, heritage comfrey plant which we grew in the Hokianga was edible and an incredible healer of wounds, skin troubles, bronchitis and many other complaints.  But recently (October 2017) I ate some comfrey from a plant which was shop-bought.  This was definitely not intended to be consumed.  It caused a mild stomach ache for several days.  Modern genetically modified comfrey has also been bred so that it lacks the wonderful healing properties of original comfrey, namely, allantoin, which is a cell-proliferant, and silica, a natural healer of cells and a promoter of healthy bones, teeth, hair, skin and nails.

Nature provides us with a cocktail of wonderful compounds in traditional Comfrey which work together in a synergistic way to heal all manner of diseases, so long as the herb is used sensibly and with respect.

To my knowledge, no case has EVER been reported to our national poisons centre.  Because no-one has ever ‘mis-used’ Comfrey to a disastrous effect.

I believe the hype about Comfrey is really to stop us from using this herb as an alternative to pharmaceutical preparations.  Some of Comfrey’s healing components have been isolated by pharmaceutical companies, who are profitting from Comfrey’s healing agents, whilst discouraging the use of natural Comfrey herb.

Interesting to note that a ‘Soil and Health’ article from around 2000-2006 stated that the newer varieties of Comfrey lack that invaluable ingredient, allantoin, which is a cell-proliferant.  They are also apparently much lower in silica than traditional types of Comfrey.  This is probably the reason why traditional Comfrey was banned in NZ and Australia for a time – it is high in silica and allantoin, which both can help prevent and heal degenerative diseases such as cancer, and also bowel problems such as colitis and irritable bowel syndrome.  My belief is that ‘research’ determined that a new type of Comfrey be developed which was not going to compete with modern day pharmaceutical drugs in any way.  Modern hybridized Comfrey is virtually useless as a healing commodity in my opinion.

I would put traditional Comfrey at the top of the list of healing herbs.  An invaluable healing herb, Comfrey has been used for centuries, if not thousands of years, as a healing agent, both for external and internal uses.

It is high in silica, mucilage, potassium, phosphorous, nitrogen, and other nutrients, including germanium, cobalt, and allantoin which is a cell-proliferant. This last, as well as the rich silica levels, give it the capacity to repair damaged cells very quickly.

Comfrey tea used externally as a hair rinse, and as a tea taken internally, say one cup a day, will help hair growth.

Traditional Comfrey was known as ‘Knitbone’, or ‘Stitchwort’, whose names attest to its ability in healing broken bones.  It is also renowned for its healing effect on wounds, burns and cancer.

The germanium and cobalt in Comfrey are thought to be of especial help in treating cancer.

The mucilage in Comfrey, plus its other healing agents, can help in cases of bowel diseases such as stomach ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome and ulcerative colitis.

John Heinerman quotes a Soviet Medical Journal, ‘Vutreshi Bolesti’, June, 1981 which reported that Comfrey and Calendula tea, in equal quantities, was effective in curing 90% of 170 hospital patients who had severe gastrointestinal ulcers.  Two cups of the Comfrey-Calendula tea was taken twice a day until healed. (see p.112, Heinerman’s Encyclopedia of Fruits Vegetables and Herbs, Parker Publishing Company, New York, 1988)

Dr Vogel is another herbalist who recommends Comfrey for treating inflammations of the stomach and intestinal walls.  He uses a mucilaginous tincture, made from Comfrey, which he calls ‘Symphosan’.  He has also used this remedy successfully for treating inflammation of the nerves.

Yet, for all the history on the herb and the wonderful successes people have had with it, sometime around the 1990’s Comfrey was declared to be a toxic weed which needed eradicating from our gardens.  It was banned in New Zealand and Australia around then, and the only people allowed to grow it were the registered herbalists.

I remember the wee article in the paper, which said that Comfrey had caused cancer in pigs. On the strength of this example, Comfrey was then banned for household use.

What did they do to get this result – of using Comfrey to cause cancer in pigs?  Feed pigs a steady diet of Comfrey, and nothing else, until they had developed cancer?

If you were to feed pigs a steady diet of either potatoes or carrots,  to the exclusion of all other food, I think you would find a terrible thing happening to your pigs.  They would get very sick.

Potatoes have a naturally occuring poison in them called Solanum, which intensifies once the potatoes start to go green.  Potatoes which have begun to go green are potentially very harmful to the liver. But have potatoes ever been banned because people might ‘mis-use’ them?  No.

If potatoes are eaten before their skin goes green, and you sensibly combine them with other foods in your meal, then you will not get sick from eating them.

People have poisoned themselves from eating only carrots, so I have read.  The carotene content in carrots is a healthful thing for the eyes, and the general health, but in overdoses, it can be extremely damaging to the liver and the kidneys.  If you eat carrots for a long time, to the exclusion of all other foods, then you will undoubtedly become ill with some disease.

It is true that some of the constituents of Comfrey could have the potential for trouble, if you were to eat too much of it.  So – how many people, I wonder, would ever want to eat copious amounts of Comfrey?  People generally use it as a tea, rather than as a vegetable, although I sometimes used a leaf or two in with the silver beet when my children were young.  This never made us sick.

When copious amounts of the raw herb is fed to animals over a period of time, no doubt the allantoin present in Comfrey could produce some ill effects, such as cancer.  But we do not ever use Comfrey to the excusion of other herbs or foods, just as we do not eat only potatoes, or carrots, for months on end. So this risk of cancer from Comfrey is almost non-existent in human experience.

In recent years, Comfrey has reappeared in our plant shops.  But these are hybridized plants, devoid of the wonderful healing agent allantoin which is found in old-fashioned Comfrey.  The hybridized versions are also likely to contain lesser amounts of silica, and not so nutrient-rich as the traditional sort.

So for best healing results, stick to the traditional type of Comfrey, Comfrey officinalis.

Newer post on genetically modified Comfrey:

Shop-Bought Comfrey Is Ruined Medicinally, And Is Inedible

Jason Vale’s Recovery From Cancer Using Prayer and Vitamin B17, Called Laetrile

Is One Cure For Cancer Vitamin B17, also  known as Laetrile or Amydgalin?

Jason Vale is a Christian man who recovered completely from cancer using regular prayer as well as making some changes and additions to his diet.  One thing he used in his daily diet  and which he attributes much to his recovery, was Laetrile, Vitamin B17, which is found in apricot kernels.

Jason Vale  has a web-site which helps people who wish to begin an alternative cancer treatment.  He is currently facing trial in America, because the FDA, the Food Drug Administration of America, have charged him with supplying a phone number to someone who wanted to obtain Laetrile in the form of Apricot kernels.

The FDA  have a history of chasing out anybody who treats cancer through alternative means, apparently because the pharmaceutical companies, backed by many people in the medical profession, are not receptive to any competition in the healing sciences.  If people can get well from cancer without using drugs, then this means no profits for the drug companies.

Of course, you have to be careful not to over-dose with the apricot kernels, as they contain cyanide which can kill you if it does not cure you.  As a preventative measure against degenerative disease, no more than 3 per day could be taken by a person of average build who is not on a special detoxifying regime for cancer.  The idea is that the body can take more apricot kernels – no more than 9 a day eaten in divided doses – if castor oil is used every second day, with daily enemas, as these cleansing measures would wash away many nutrients, and much of the cyanide in the kernels.  Without these detox measures, you could easily be poisoned if you were to take even 6 per day on a regular basis.  However, there are many other ways in which you can poison yourself by natural means if you so desire – eating rhubarb leaves, which look like spinach, will kill you quicker than anything.  So we don’t eat rhubarb leaves.  And rhubarb is not banned, because the FDA assumes that people are not going to do anything so stupid.

A steady diet of carrots alone will kill you, as you would be poisoned by too much beta carotene, a Vitamin A precursor.  Carrots are not banned, because the FDA assumes that people will not be so stupid as to eat carrots alone. Yet they have banned the miracle herb Comfrey because of this pretended danger – that people will eat too much of it – when the real reason is that they don’t want us to be able to use Comfrey, as they want to reserve its magical healing ingredients for themselves, and charge us the earth for it when it will actually grow like a week in your garden if you let it. If they hadn’t banned it.

And now, the pharmaceutical companies via the FDA are trying to outlaw people using apricot kernels for cancer.

Jason Vale’s case is a very interesting one:  He has the support of his Christian fellowship, and is going to fight his case to the MAX.  His lawyers claim that they have proof that the FDA and the pharmaceutical companies have known about the effectiveness of Vitamin B17, called Laetrile, for many years now, but that they have kept the value of Laetrile hidden, more or less because they do not want people to get well, but wish instead to sell them many kinds of expensive  drugs for their cancer treatments instead –   Drugs which are probably less effective than using Laetrile from apricot kernels, combined with a special detoxifying programme.

The story is a little similar to the tobacco one,  if this is true:  The tobacco industry knew for decades that tobacco smoking did in fact seriously harm people’s health, yet they kept this revelation under wraps because of the massive profits cigarette sales brought to them.

Dr Max Gerson, who successfully cured many people of cancer, is one eminent doctor whom the FDA  hounded and chased out of America,  mainly because he was a threat to the orthodox medical profession and their big bosses, the drug companies.  If Dr Gerson had been allowed to continue his cancer-healing practice in America, then the word would have got out, and pharmaceutical companies, as well as many doctors who sell their drugs off, would have been out of pocket.

Vitamin B17 is also found in the kernels of other stone fruits such as nectarines, peaches, plums, almonds, and seed fruits such as apples, pears, quinces, and grapes, as well as citrus fruits such as lemons and oranges.

The use of Vitamin B17 in apricot kernels for helping to reduce cancer masses is an idea which has been around for a long time.  Dr Max Gerson used Vitamin B17 in his alternative treatments for cancer in the mid 20th century, as did Dr Anne Wigmore, Walter Last, and probably many hundreds more therapists who were helping people to recover from cancer.

Vitamin B17 helps to reduce the pain of cancer, and has been found to be helpful in reducing cancer masses when used in combination with other detoxifying measures such as castor oil, enemas, and predominantly fresh juice diets.  Of course, not even Dr Max Gerson had a 100% success rate with his alternative cancer treatment.  But many people who have not had success with orthodox treatment, or who decided in the very beginning that they would not use radiation or chemotherapy methods  in their treatments, have recovered from cancer and other degenerative disease, such as multiple sclerosis, parkinson’s, and chronic arthritis by following a strict dietary regime such as Dr Gerson’s cancer treatment.

Jason Vale is one modern person who has been successful in recovering from cancer using these alternative methods, after medical science had given  up all hope of his recovery.

Jacqui Davison is another who adopted the natural cleansing approach, and lived to tell the tale, after she  been given up by her doctors and given only three weeks or so to live.  Jacqui wrote a book about her recovery.

 

Black Walnut For Restoring Tooth Enamel

Medicinal Herbs: Thankyou to Charlie, who wrote in asking about Black Walnut as a restorative herb for tooth enamel.

DSCO 1851Photo taken at Dunedin Botanical Gardens by Merrilyn on Holly’s camera.

Restorative Diets such as those used for cancer, arthritis, multiple sclerosis and other diseases, have proven successful in many cases, for restoring tooth enamel.  Often, people have discovered that their teeth have repaired themselves whilst following a strict dietary and cleansing regime to treat eczema, psoriasis, or a life-threatening disease.

However, there are some specifics which are helpful in keeping tooth enamel healthy, and even in repairing tooth enamel.  Black Walnut is one of them.  Comfrey is another.  Prickly Ash is another.  Nettles, called ‘Stinging Nettles’ are another.

So what is it about the Black Walnut,  the Juglans nigra, which gives it such a great reputation for facilitating healing, including the regrowth of tooth enamel?  Louise Tenney who wrote the book ‘Today’s Herbal Health’, 1983, gives a summary of the healing attributes of the Black Walnut, in which she includes its ability to heal tooth enamel.

Valuable Minerals in Black Walnut:  For a start, Black Walnut Husks and Leaves are rich in important healing minerals.  Some of these, according to Louise Tenney, are organic iodine, magnesium, manganese,  Vitamin B15, silica, iron, calcium, potassium and phosphorous.

Iodine, especially, is a natural anti-bacterial, which would make Black Walnut helpful for the teeth.  Iodine helps to keep harmful germs in the mouth at bay. So the use of Black Walnut and other herbs which have a high organic iodine content, will help to kill off those germs which eat away at the teeth.  In this sense, Black Walnut would be very helpful for the restoration of the tooth enamel.

Silica is another important mineral which helps to keep harmful germs at bay, as well as having an important function in building strong teeth, bones, hair and nails.  Silica is found in the Black Walnut husks and leaves, as well as in Comfrey, Stinging Nettles, and Prickly Ash.  Comfrey is one of the richest sources of silica, which is a good enough reason to have the plant brought back for the general public to use again:  At present, many countries have banned comfrey because the drug companies have convinced governments that it can cause cancer and should be banned.  But this is really so that they have the monopoly on all the healing ingredients contained in comfrey.  People have been using comfrey as a healing herb TO GOOD EFFECT for thousands of years.  Stinging nettles are another rich source of silica, but commercial herbicides and people’s desire to control our road-side verges have almost put this vauluable healing plant into extinction.

Avoid Chemcials including Food Additives: Of course, it is not enough to simply use Black Walnut tincture, or another iodine product, on a daily basis.  For Black Walnut tincture to be effective on the teeth, you would need to have a nutritious diet, with plenty of protein, green vegetables, and plenty of raw salad material to keep the teeth clean and the saliva alkaline.  The same goes for using Comfrey in the diet, or Nettles, or Prickly Ash rubbed onto the gums and teeth – You need to be following a sound and healthy diet, rich in green vegetables both raw and cooked, with adequate protein, and little or no sugary foods, for the teeth to restore themselves.  You also need to avoid any harmful chemicals such as those food additives which are put into all sorts of packaged food these days.  Even breads contain preservative, which are very bad for the teeth as well as the general physical, mental and emotional states of well-being.

Cleansing With Castor Oil:  Periods of cleansing, where raw foods are eaten for a day, or several days, depending on the advice of your health practitioner, can be helpful in removing toxins from the body.  Ridding the body of toxic chemicals, and avoiding contact with chemicals, can help the general health as well as the health of the teeth.  Jacqui Davison was following the cancer-cure outlined by Dr Max Gerson, who cured many people of cancer during his life-time.  Castor Oil was one of the most important ingredients of his cancer cure.  Dr Gerson’s diet for reversing cancer also healed the tooth enamel on Jacqui’s teeth.  However, it must be remembered that Jacqui followed this diet with its rigorous cleansing procedures, for almost a year before she realized that her teeth had repaired themselves.  Healing of the teeth takes as long as it takes to heal an invasive cancer, and it requires the same amount of vigilant effort.