Useful and medicinal properties of comfrey medicinal
Perennial herbaceous plant up to 1 m high. The root is black-brown, long, spindle-shaped, branching, moving away from a short rhizome. Stem( one or several) erect, branchy, angular from below, winged above, covered with hard hairs. Leaves alternate, ovate or oblong-lanceolate, petiolate, upper - sessile. Flowers are purple, white-pink or dirty-purple, in curls. Fruits are dry, decaying into 4 nuts. Blossoms from May to September.
Distributed in all regions of the Southeast and in the black earth zone of Russia, to the north it occurs less often. It is common in damp meadows, shrubs, in river floodplains, along ravines, in girders, near ditches and streams.
Medicinal raw material is the root, less often the tip of the stems. The root is collected in autumn, cleared from the ground and aboveground parts, washed in water and cut into pieces. Drying in the shade in the air or under the roof in attics, in dryers.
The plant is poisonous!
Stored in ventilated rooms. Shelf life 3 years. All parts of the plant contain poisonous substances( alkaloidcinoglossin, glucoalkaloid-console-din and the products of their decay - konsolezin, choline, etc.), which in large doses paralyze the central nervous system. In addition, the root of the comfrey contains a lot of mucus, tannic and starchy substances and organic acids, alkaloid laziocorpine, traces of essential oil.
In medical practice, the comfrey finds extremely limited application. The essence of fresh roots is used in homeopathy.
In folk medicine, a root is used, and in its absence, grass. In most cases, use the infusion of the root on hot milk, evaporating it in the oven or in the oven for 6-7 hours, without boiling, so as not to destroy useful substances. Infusion of the root is used as an enveloping and anti-inflammatory agent for inflammation of the mucous membrane of the mouth.
With pulmonary tuberculosis drink an aqueous decoction or a decoction with milk, often add honey, various fats, eggs;the same water broth is drunk with bone tuberculosis, stomach diseases( gastritis, ulcer), general exhaustion, toothache;with rheumatism, radiculitis, and also during dislocations they drink a water broth and rub themselves with tincture on vodka. They drink a decoction, in the summer they use fresh crushed root, and in the winter they steamed, applying it in pure form or in the form of ointment with pork fat, with fractures of bones and strong bruises, thrombophlebitis, sarcoma.
Decoction of the root is given to drink, bathe the children in a decoction to strengthen the bones.
Outer water extract of the root( on boiling water, but without boiling) is used to rinse the catarrh of the throat;powder from the root is applied to bleeding wounds. Juice from the root or stem or powder embedded in the nose on the fleece, stops nose bleeding, ointment is applied in the form of lubrication in diseases of the throat, better with simultaneous rinsing of the throat.
As an astringent it is used with simple and even bloody diarrhea, with boils, ulcers and abscesses inside and outward.
Application of
Vodka tincture: 10 g of roots per 150 ml of vodka;insist 10 days( if the root is dry, it must be crushed);take 10-15 drops 3 times a day.
Infusion in hot milk: 10 g per 200 ml;1 tbsp.spoon 3 times a day.
Infusion on water( hot) - in the same proportions and the same dose for bone fractures, bone tuberculosis, cancer, brucellosis, hypertension, polyarthritis.
A mixture of comfrey with honey( instead of infusion of the root on milk): take a fresh or dry, but soaked root, pound the dough, add half of the honey and mix;This rather thick mass is consumed for 1 tsp, washed down with water, 3 times a day.
Ointment 1: the fresh root is ground, dried, jelted, added with yellow sulfur, rosin, unsalted pork fat, all is boiled, when the protein is added to the raw egg, stir until completely cooled or the root is mixed with the pork fat, camphor oil is added to the semi-cooled mass, thisointment is used for fractures of bones, severe bruises, rheumatism and various tumors.
Ointment 2: Freshly ground root is mixed in half with heated pork fat, used in the treatment of thrombophlebitis, ulcers, bone fractures, sarcomas.
Reminder. The plant requires caution when used. When poisoning with comfrey, it is necessary to rinse the stomach with a weak solution of potassium permanganate, prescribe salt laxatives and funds that support breathing and blood circulation.