Comfrey Salve Uses (And a Recipe)

Learn about the myriad comfrey salve uses for treating soreness and wounds. We'll show you how to make comfrey salve, an herbal healing balm from the 'miracle plant.'

Reader Contribution by Stephanie Tourles
Updated on February 22, 2023
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Adobe Stock/orestligetka
Learn about the myriad comfrey salve uses for treating soreness and wounds. We’ll show you how to make comfrey salve, an herbal healing balm from the ‘miracle plant.’
Native to Europe and Asia, comfrey — often called the “miracle plant” — is a rather attractive perennial herb with hairy or prickly stems and lance-shaped leaves. Comfrey’s small bell-shaped flowers grow in various colors, typically cream, pinkish, or purplish (depending on the specific variety of the plant), and the plant has dark-hued roots that extend quite deep into the ground.

Comfrey grows to approximately 3 feet tall. Its first reported medicinal use dates back to approximately 400 BCE.  Latin in origin, the word comfrey means “to grow together,” leaving little speculation as to why Greek physicians often relied on the herb to treat inflammation, wounds, ulcers, gangrene, burns, fractures, and sprains.

As an herbalist, licensed holistic esthetician, professional aromatherapist, and certified reflexologist with an affinity for formulating products that are effective via topical application, comfrey is one of my go-to herbs — it has so many remedial uses. Comfrey-infused oil, available from better health food stores, herb shops, and online retailers (such as Mountain Rose Herbs), is the base of the following recipe, which contains a key oil-soluble, pharmacologically active constituent called “rosemarinic acid.”

Being a rather formidable polyphenol or antioxidant, rosemarinic acid boasts antimicrobial, anti-allergic, analgesic, and anti-inflammatory properties, plus it is gently astringent or tissue-tightening. Like vitamin E, it may help prevent cellular damage within the skin and speed wound healing.

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