Comfrey

Latest Articles

Comfrey

Downsizer Forum Index -> Recipes, Preserving, Homebrewing

Author

Message

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15471
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Wed Apr 09, 25 12:56 pm Post subject: Comfrey

OK, this section says "Food and drink", and comfrey is quite toxic, but I couldn't spot a better section and I figured that recipes should include recipes for medicines.

A friend has broken her ankle and coincidentally I'm digging up loads of comfrey root out of the allotment.

The healing properties of Comfrey are widely know, and even proven in clinical trials, but all the recipe's I've found so far are for the leaves and I don't have many of those at this time.

So what's best to do?
Just mash it up and slap it on as a poultice?
Presumably wrap a bandage around it to keep it tidy.

Any recipes for preserving it?
I'm not generally in the habit of breaking bones, but if I do break anything, I won't want to go out and dig up the medicine...

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 43860
Location: yes

Posted: Wed Apr 09, 25 1:14 pm Post subject:

leaf and stem or root "tea" with the pulp as a poultice in a bandage

root can be used in various ways from making a cast to tea and mash to making an oil extraction as a rub on salve

raw leaf will irritate skin. sharp hairs

always destroy the hairs with a steep and cool until not scalding
it works well for skeleto-muscular damage

not good for deep wounds unless all you need is fasten it together to stop the leaking and then treat it properly asap, use stem mucus for that and take the pain when you pop it open before you risk gangrene etc

massive subject, but tea or mash is the easiest stuff for a healing break

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15471
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Wed Apr 09, 25 10:09 pm Post subject:

dpack wrote:

leaf and stem or root "tea" with the pulp as a poultice in a bandage

Ok, that's ambiguous: tea is for drinking and comfrey has a number of toxins in it...
Maybe they're inconsequential, but I don't much fancy drinking it anyway.
Besides which, there are no leaves yet: spring ain't sprung far enough.

Did you mean to speak of making tea from the roots?
Seems to me that mashing them is more straightforward.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 43860
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Apr 10, 25 11:15 am Post subject:

comfrey in a mug, add boiling water, cover, and cool until a comfortable temp before using it as a poultice

i thought "tea" and "mash" to be self explanatory

it is the easiest way to use the stuff

re toxicity, there are assorted views on how toxic and in what ways

the carcinogenic claims originally came from the spinach industry

various strains have different active ingredients

young leaves are not "deadly" cooked like nettles as greens

much like many other plants there are plenty of myths, reality might be more complex

there is a splendid saxon poem which was taken as art/myth, it is actually a list of good wound herbs that covers the entire year

off grid/traditional (and effective) medicine is one of my subjects

i was taught uses of "common" plants along with their names when i was very young, grannie was a highly skilled pre-antibiotic healer and nurse

since then i have continued a family tradition that she learnt from my gt gt grannie

dr james duke, green medicine. good basic advice
lofty wiseman covers some off grid aspects, so did mr mears,
widerness medicine is a useful book

culpepper has some good stuff along with the toasted mouse placebos etc

the B. P. herbal medicines book is useful and has lots of technical data

rev keeble is a handy field guide to most of the UK ones

Slim

Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Posts: 6675
Location: New England (In the US of A)

Posted: Thu Apr 10, 25 12:56 pm Post subject:
Dpack have you recorded anything in any form, or too tricky to translate to words on a page effectively? (See difference of interpretation regarding tea above)

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 43860
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Apr 10, 25 6:18 pm Post subject:

my description of a situation and "new" neolithic archeological find was big on japanese news for a few days

newsnight said "fascinating, we cannot possibly broadcast it" when they asked what i thought of Â£100 mil for "green energy development"
and i replied appropriately
that one started with "that is not even pocket change for the seven sisters" and then gave them an impromptu and unscripted 10 mins based on that theme

they asked if they could do anything,i got a 24 pack of special brew out of them as they refused to "donate"their goretex to damp folk.

undercurrents , and or others,might still have my how to scrapheap challenge style making effective reinforcement in protest site bunker concrete

there are other examples of me on image and sound in various capacities

etc, been at the back of the camera as well

i prefer to save or hunt my fox in private

my use of my language may be "creative", that is the nature of language if it is being used

the "tea" and "mash" thing seems pretty clear when read in the context of and use it in a poultice

maybe i need to point at it while using the appropriate words

a DS " internet video platform" could be useful and amusing

that might not be a daft as i first thought and i can be a coherent media tart

Last edited by dpack on Thu Apr 10, 25 7:00 pm; edited 1 time in total

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 43860
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Apr 10, 25 6:43 pm Post subject:

re written and fairly precise
i published a free one in words on academia

a list of about 8 subjects for a PhD thesis

several were suggested as plausibly worthwhile and possible

several were just dont try, it will not be nice even if you manage to get a submission before falling down a bad rabbit hole

and 2 were doing this would at best ruin your life and might be worse than that

that is how i appraised and still appraise the various potential themes.
looking back 3 of them would probably ruin or shorten your life

it is rather fun that it still gets mentions

and even more amusing that i am more times mistaken for a person with very different interests that i have no knowledge of or interest in,
that might be a plumbers distraction

they are excellent subject proposals

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 43860
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Apr 10, 25 7:03 pm Post subject:
ps some of my djembe beats resurface in assorted tunes, does that count? i have written stuff that was understood

Slim

Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Posts: 6675
Location: New England (In the US of A)

Posted: Thu Apr 10, 25 10:07 pm Post subject:
I was more thinking about a treatise on medicine and first aid for when your country falls apart around you

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 43860
Location: yes

Posted: Fri Apr 11, 25 12:46 pm Post subject:

i might manage a reading list

get it for free if you can it cost me Â£80

virtual naval hospital, i have 4.5 G on disk, the interweb can be "interrupted"

with that corpsman pt 1 and 2 for decent first aid /triage

the "outward bound" wilderness medicine book

lofty wiseman survival guide

Dr A Duke, dont get poorly, deal with it if you do

-----------------------------------------------------

have a chat with wolf clan about useful plants local to the area, tell them Miriam's friendly wolf sent you

meet and learn from the hobo foot monitors

off grid can be very foot based, the stuff i saw and often mended was special

ditto basic dental care

confidence and do no harm (if possible) is a decent starting position to up the patients chances of survive and maybe thrive
---------------------------------------------------------------

gather kit(and know how to improvise)
learn whenever you can, do it is very educational

embroidery, plenty of ways to practice, cut one end off a haggis, remove a little of the contents, then stitch, and boil without it splitting
if you master that, guts(appendix is a common off grid issue) and most other bits can be sewn properly
two lines of stitching

-------------------------------------------

it takes a decade or more to become a doctor, off grid starts when you have no "grid" and it is necessary (and it is a good use of resources, see triage

)

Last edited by dpack on Sat Apr 12, 25 1:06 pm; edited 1 time in total

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15471
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Sat Apr 12, 25 11:50 am Post subject:

Slim wrote:

I was more thinking about a treatise on medicine and first aid for when your country falls apart around you

Running a bit late on that...

Slim

Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Posts: 6675
Location: New England (In the US of A)

Posted: Sat Apr 12, 25 12:28 pm Post subject:
Yes, but I still have access to resources currently

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16264

Posted: Sun Apr 13, 25 6:32 am Post subject:
So do we.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 43860
Location: yes

Posted: Mon Apr 14, 25 12:43 pm Post subject:

at the mo we have more than most humans

in a fraction of a second that can change
or
you are far from the more and need to deal with it now
and
knowing the basics is good for you and for society
and
knowing enough can be very useful, the first 15 mins of the golden hour before the ambulance arrives can be life or death for an easily saveable one, or you can save a wasted shout and just deal with it if that is more appropriate

ps ward nurses are often rather poor at "in the field" procedure, field folk can do ward if required:lol:

doctors who have done field/expedition might be a bit damaged but they know more than the less experienced and are more willing to share knowledge(it might be them)
ditto sf field medics

ps leatherman/SAknife, gaffer tape, clingfilm, field dressings, celox (or similar) are fairly small and light and very multi purpose "pocket kit"
most specific kit stuff is easy to improvise and daft to carry
huge caveat, carried or cached medication can be very appropriate to the potential risks
at one point i had a few unusual additions to the first aid kit, ketamine, wire saw and a mines rescue harness is not normal unless .....

i'm glad they were never needed

	Downsizer Forum Index -> Recipes, Preserving, Homebrewing	All times are GMT
Page 1 of 1

View Latest Posts