Symphytum officinale

Symph.
God will not look you over for medals, degrees or diplomas, but for scars!
[Elbert Hubbard]
Signs
Symphytum officinalis. Comfrey. Knitbone. N.O. Boraginaceae.

CLASSIFICATION The Boraginaceae or Forget-me-not family comprises some 100

genera and about 2000 species of annual and perennial herbs, shrubs, trees and
a few lianas with simple entire leaves, and salver- or bell-shaped flowers with
typically 5 sepals, 5 petals, 5 stamens and a superior ovary. The family is found
throughout temperate and subtropical areas of the world with a major centre of
distribution in the Mediterranean region. Characteristically, the stems, leaves,
and inflorescences are covered in rough hairs. The inflorescence uncoils
progressively as the flowers open so that the newly opened blooms always face
the same direction. The flowers are predominantly insect-pollinated, with blue,
white, pink or yellow flowers. Many species have pendulous flowers, e.g.
Borago and Symphytum. The flowers may change from red to violet to blue,
during the blooming period. They blossom in red and wither in blue. This is due
to the presence of certain pigments which react to the pH of the soil, a red
colour of the bloom indicating acidity, violet indicating neutral and blue
alkaline. The family is divided into two subfamilies: Heliotropiodeae and
Boraginoideae. The latter can be further subdivided into five tribes. Of the nine
species used in homoeopathy, Heliotropium is the only species belonging to the
former subfamily. The eight remaining species are placed in the tribe
Cynoglosseae [Cynoglossum], in the tribe Lithospermaea [Lithospermum,
Onosmodium, Myosotis], or in the tribe Boragineae [Borago, Pulmonaria,
Symphytum].

SYMPHYTUM The 35 species in the genus Symphytum are coarse, hairy herbs
with simple, opposite or basal leaves and pendent, tubular to club-shaped
flowers. Symphytum officinale is the comfrey, a coarse perennial native to
Europe and Asia with winged stems and large, rough leaves. The plant grows up
to 90 cm high and prefers moist, marshy places. The flowers are arranged in
curled cymes and vary considerably in colour - white, pale yellow, purple,
purple-blue, rose and crimson forms being found. The root possesses great such
a generative power that, when it is cut into pieces, each piece of root will
produce a new plant, even the pieces that have no attached growth bud

.
CONSTITUENTS Allantoin [0.3-0.8%], mainly in the roots, with maximum levels
in spring and autumn; also found in leaves, which contain c. 0.45% in June and
0.15% in September; triterpenoids; phenolic acids; asparagine; tannins;
mucilage [up to 30%]; pyrrolizidine alkaloids; silicic acid [0.2-4.5%], maximum
amount in August. The leaves contain symphytocynoglossin, an alkaloid with
curare-like effects on cold-blooded animals, but having no effect on warm-
blooded animals and humans. 1 Other alkaloids in comfrey reportedly have a
mildly paralyzing effect on the central nervous system. "Much of the healing
effect of comfrey is known to be due to the effect of the allantoin: this promotes
the constructive activity of the fibroblasts in producing connective tissue, and
their near-relatives chondroblasts [cartilage] and osteoblasts [bone] and even
neural cells; it promotes keratin dispersal and has been used topically with
some success for the treatment of psoriasis. It thus aids the regeneration of all
tissues in the body, including bone, but with the possible exception of skeletal
muscle. In addition allantoin is very highly diffusable through the body and can
be relied on to reach deep tissues from external application. On the surface its
action is aided by the phenomenal contracting 'plaster' effect of comfrey's
mucilage, tannins and resins as they dry. The acqueous extract of the plant
increases the release of prostaglandins of the F series from the stomach wall,
pointing to a direct action in protecting the gastric mucosa from damage."2
Synthesized allantoin - obtained from uric acid - is popular in the cosmetic
industry in cold creams, hand lotions, hair lotions, after-shave lotions and other
skin-soothing products. Comfrey is in several countries considered a health
hazard, and subsequently subjected to legal restrictions, on account of toxic
effects on the liver of laboratory rats. These effects were evoked by feeding rats
pyrrolizidine alkaloids, as isolated substances, in a proportion of 16% of their
total diet over a long period. According to Mills, similar experiments have
shown a protective antitumour effect in mice. It is still unclear whether
pyrrolizidine alkaloids, of which more than one hundred have been identified in
plants, are toxic in the context of the whole plant. Homoeopathically, it
indicates a distinct affinity for the liver. Several plant genera contain significant
amounts of these alkaloids, among them Heliotropium, Cynoglossum, Borago,
Symphytum, Tussilago, and, most notably, Senecio [ragwort].
UNITING Comfrey leaves when boiled make a green vegetable, whilst the young
shoots are eaten like asparagus. The plant was named after its reputation to
heal broken bones, being derived from Gr. symphyo, to unite. Culpeper refers to
the traditional belief that comfrey roots are so powerful "to consolidate and
knit together, that if they be boiled with severed pieces of flesh in a pot, it will
join them together again." The common name comfrey refers also to early uses
in the treatment of fractures, and comes either from L. confirmo, 'I strengthen',
or confero, 'I gather together'. "The leaves are fused to the stem, running down
alongside it as if they could not let go. This was a sign to the old botanists of
comfrey's great determination, a gesture expressing its cohesive power. To the
human body, this means that comfrey can join back together what has come
apart. And indeed comfrey has long been used with great success as a remedy
for broken bones and tissue damage. The plant was recognized to bear the sign
of the planet Saturn and to stand for the joining, fixing, hardening energies. In
truth, when a comfrey root in the ground has been cut into, it will grow
together again - another sign of the plant's joining force. ... Plants bearing
Saturn's imprint do not open their blossoms to the light - they bend down.
Comfrey's flowers, too, open towards the ground. ... Long ago, [comfrey] plants
with purple flowers were called 'comfrey men' and those with yellow flowers
'comfrey women'. ... With comfrey one cannot always tell if the flower is blue or
red. Yin and Yang unite in these plants - the blue heavenly energy and the red
earthly energy. The same polar energies are found in comfrey's healing
properties that can join and dissolve at the same time. This balance play is
revealed further by a closer look at another peculiarity of this plant family: All
members have a high silicic acid content, a substance that assumes forms from
the watery to the solid; in its hardest form, a rock crystal. It lends to plants the
ability to absorb water. Comfrey has fleshy, watery leaves with it stem and root
full of viscous mucilage. His preferred habitat is wetlands, along the course of a
river, or in water-filled ditches. At the same time, the silicic acid - full of life -
desires form. For comfrey plants, this manifests as the innumerable sharp
bristles on leaves and stem. In the human body, silicic acid can affect both soft
and firm structures. It can have a form-giving, firming effect on soft connective
tissue and support growth at the periphery on hair, skin, and nails. Likewise,
comfrey can dissolve swelling and bruises as well as strengthen and stabilize
ligaments and tendons."3
FOLK MEDICINE Due to the effects of mucilage and tannins, comfrey has been
used in the healing of ulcers and other erosive damage of the gastrointestinal
tract. Its ability to promote the healing of bruises, sprains, and fractures has
been known for thousands of years. External applications of the leaves or
pulped roots is widely regarded in folklore as a treatment for arthritic
conditions. A common recommendation in the 19th century was as a cough
medicine. Comfrey oil or ointment is used to treat acne and boils, to relieve
psoriasis, and in the treatment of scars.
PROVINGS No provings have been done with Symphytum, aside from a
'fragmentary proving' by Macfarlan, provided this can be accepted as a proving
in the first place.
Macfarlan explains his method of conducting provings thus: "[In 1866] I began
systematic provings with the medicines sent, and others of my own preparation.
My plan was then, and has been ever since, to work with one remedy for
several weeks, giving it to an individual in water every hour or so until
symptoms developed, as many persons taking it at the same time as I could
conveniently obtain. ... My object has been to collate a few reliable symptoms,
not as many as possible. ... There is nothing herein copied nor obtained from
any one else. ... The medicines were given in water as a rule. Patients never
knew that they were making provings of medicines. The pellets were put in one-
half a tumbler of water and a teaspoonful at least every two hours, often every
hour. Symptoms generally occurred on the third day. The provers in many cases
had local ailments, fractures, injuries, etc., which did not interfere much with
their general health or complicate medicinal symptoms."4 Donald Macfarlan,
who carried on the work of his father in similar vein, found the main plus-point
of the method in which the provers were "absolutely incognizant of the fact
they were making a proving," that "this way nothing is imagined" because they
"are hit as if by a natural disease." For the sake of completeness the symptoms
obtained by Malcolm Macfarlan for Symphytum are included below.
[1] Stübler and Krug, Leesers Lehrbuch der Homöopathie: Pflanzliche
Arzneistoffe II. [2] Mills, Herbal Medicine. [3] Fischer-Rizzi, Medicine of the
Earth. [4] Malcolm Macfarlan, Provings and Clinical Observations with High
Potencies, 1894.

Affinity
CARTILAGE. PERIOSTEUM. Flat bones.
Modalities
Worse: INJURIES. Blows from blunt instruments. Touch. Motion. Pressure.
Better: Gentle motion. Warmth.
Main symptoms
G Pre-eminently used in first-aid situations.
Yet is also mentioned as an important remedy for bone cancer and sarcoma.
[See the case of 'a malignant tumour of the antrum, which had extended to the
nose' related in Anshutz, New, Old and Forgotten Remedies.]
G FRACTURES; comminuted fractures.
Favours production of callus.
• "It's an excellent remedy for broken bones where the bones refuse to knit."
[Kent]
Irritability and pricking pain at the point of fracture.
• "Let me quote a few instances of fracture of the neck of the femur, a common
fracture in old people, where it takes weeks and months for the bones to knit
together, and an operation, so-called 'plating' of the bones, is needed, to enable
these ancients to walk again. There were two cases where I was indirectly the
means of hastening the period of union of the bone. One was a lady of eighty-
five, who slipped on a mat and broke the head of the femur. She had an
operation in hospital, but no progress was made until a friend of hers, on my
advice, took Symphytum 6 pillules to the ward, with the instruction to tell her
she should take one three times a day. Would you believe it, this old lady, in a
ward of forty people, all suffering from similar fractures of the femur, was the
first to be able to walk, whose femur united first, as proved by the X-rays, and
who was able to leave the ward within less than six weeks from the time of the
operation! The surgeon congratulated her on her rapid cure, as she had
outpaced all the other patients, saying that she must be an extremely healthy
woman, and that he could not understand it at all. Unfortunately, he was not
told about the little pills which she had taken. Another, much younger lady,
suffered a similar accident to the femur. She was given Symphytum 30 once a
day after the operation, and was also fortunate in leaving the hospital long
before any of the others, some of whom had been in the ward for a much longer
period."1
G Pricking, stitching pains, remaining after wound is healed, < touch. [Phatak]
• "Periosteal pains after wounds have healed." [Allen]
G Excessively painful [old] injuries to periosteum or cartilage.
P Blunt traumata to eyeball.
And Great pain in eyeball [main remedy].
P Paradentosis.
P Backache after sexual excesses or from wrestling.
P Irritable stump after operation.
Phantom limb pains.
P Symptoms obtained by Macfarlan with Symphytum 5c:
• "Pains across his epigastrium from one side to the other; worse opposite the
spleen and in walking; when sitting pain is severe about the navel; griping pain;
headache sometimes in the occiput, and again in top of head, occasionally in
forehead; indefinable headache all over the head. Menses stopped; great deal
of headache. Feeling of weight in the forehead constantly. Considerable fever,
which comes and goes often during the day. Often complains of coldness,
cramp, and diarrhoea; nasal cavity sore, picking at the nose; rubs her eyes;
inflamed ears, feels as if something was in them, stopped up, can't hear well,
slight deafness feeling miserably; generally weak and no desire or ability to be
employed."2
 Symptoms obtained with Symphytum 15c:
• "Alternately cold and feverish all day; after a few days continued coldness
and a desire to have on more clothing. Itching of eyelids, disposition to rub
them. Menses cease for a month when proving."3

[1] Shepherd, A Physician's Posy. [2-3] Macfarlan, Provings and Clinical

Observations, 1894.
Rubrics
Mind
Dwells on past disagreeable occurrences [1].
Eye
Pain, from a blow [3]; sore, from a blow [3]. Desire to rub eyes [1].
Nose
Constant desire to pick nose [1].
Stomach
Appetite capricious [1]. Vomiting during pregnancy [1].
Female
Menses absent [1], suppressed [1].
Chest
Sore, bruised pain in mammae [1].
Back
Pain, from exertion [1], after sexual excesses [1]. Spinal wounds [1].
Limbs
Amputated stump painful [1]. Injuries, elbow, tennis elbow [1]. Neuralgic pain
in knee [1].
Generals
Injuries, compound fracture of bone [1]; slow repair of broken bones [3]; with
extravasations [1]; sprains, distortions [2]; of soft parts [2]. Tendency to strain
oneself in lifting [2].