Creating a Comfrey Poultice

Comfrey, symphytum officinale, is a wonderful herb. Also known as knitbone, bruisewort, and miracle herb among others, comfrey’s mucilaginous properties treat all sorts of conditions, soothing nerves and healing everything it touches. Comfrey reportedly has a balancing effect upon blood sugar and it can be used as part of a tea blend for respiratory conditions and ulcers. It can also be used for a poultice on burns, bee stings, and arthritic joints.

Today I’m making another comfrey poultice for my husband’s knee. He trashed his knee a few years back and keeps re-injuring it, so it continues to gives him difficulty. When I decided to make the comfrey poultice yesterday to put over his knee, there was, fortunately, still some comfrey out in the garden that was alive to use in the decoction. Dried comfrey is also fine to use, but whenever I can use fresh, I do so to get the most out of the mucilage while it’s still moist. I also used some powdered dry comfrey root in the poultice mixture as well for even more healing properties.

I brought in some comfrey from the garden and began chopping it up into small pieces for simmering. Then I filled a small pot with water, added the comfrey and then brought it to a boil because I wasn’t watching it as closely as I should have been. After cleaning up the mess all over the stove, I added a little more water to account for the loss and let it simmer, covered, for around thirty minutes on the stove on low heat.

When the comfrey was done simmering, it was looking really dark which I was hoping for. The medicinal properties were decocting well into the menstruum (liquid). I took it off the element and removed the lid to allow the mixture to cool a bit. Then I spooned some onto a folded paper towel which I had sitting on a wash rag allowing the mixture to cool a little more before placing it on my husband’s knee.

 

 

I put the whole thing, rag and all, over his knee, wrapped it with plastic wrap, and then again with a towel, securing it with an elastic bandage. He left it on for a couple of hours to let the comfrey do its healing work and when we removed it, the pain and swelling was gone. He didn’t feel any additional pain until late last night when it began to twinge a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comfrey’s mucilaginous nature is so soothing and healing. I also included some additional comfrey and horsetail (silica) in our morning tea blend for additional healing. Comfrey contains calcium and magnesium along with phosphorus and iron and has long been used by herbalists to treat broken bones and burns. It’s also a great fertilizer in either dry form or as a compost tea. I lay fresh leaves between the beds in my medicinal herb garden so that as they rot, they’ll spread their nourishment throughout the garden.

So next time, when you need to heal something…consider comfrey. It’s pure healing magick!

Blessed Be