Grown and used by humans for thousands of years, comfrey is well-known among my gardener, herbalist and healer friends. It's less known as an edible among foragers for reasons we'll go over briefly. Unlike most posts on this site, I can't recommend eating large amounts, but the myriad of uses the plant has makes it a great one to know, and grow, even if you never eat it.
I was introduced to comfrey by my friend Dotty Bacon, a talented gardener and lover of pollinators who told me it was a healing plant and showed me I could eat the pretty, faintly sweet purple flowers. For around ten years now I've gathered the flowers every year to garnish salads, in small amounts.
It wasn't until later when I had a garden of my own that I learned about the other benefits of the plant, particularly for enriching the soil and using in compost. And of course, it's great plant for pollinators-the bees just love it!
Background
Comfrey (Symphytum officinale and others) are perennial plants in the Boraginaceae family, making them related to edible borage and Virginia bluebells. It's a very distinctive plant, but does bear some resemblance to foxglove (poisonous) and borage (edible).
They appear in the spring as a basal rosette of furry, pointed leaves, eventually growing tall flower stalks with flowers that can range from white to light and dark purple.
Comfrey plants are vigorous growers, developing a large taproot and spreading over time, although the sterile Russian comfrey cultivars seem to be less aggressive. Once established, colonies of the plant can live for hundreds of years. If you plant comfrey, you'll probably have it forever, so plan the location accordingly.
The Many Uses of Comfrey
I'm not qualified to discuss medicinal aspects of Tylenol, let alone medicinal plants, so I tend to stay in my lane here. But, this plant is so widely known and respected as a medicinal it would be remiss of me to not mention it in passing. If you have personal experience working with comfrey in non-food ways, please leave a comment and share.
One thing I can attest to is the use of the plant as fertilizer. Comfrey is rich in rich in phosphorus nitrogen, and potassium-all good nutrients for growing plants. Just like nettles, the plant can be cut down multiple times per year. The leaves can be soaked in water and left to ferment, with the very stinky "tea" used as fertilizer for other plants.
I don't have many comfrey plants, but I've been cutting leaves from friends to place around the base of my garden plants for their nutrients-another use for comfrey leaves if you don't want to wait for the stinky tea.
Is Comfrey Edible?
This is where things get complex. Most references I've looked at regarding comfrey mention that it contains potentially dangerous pyrrolizidine alkaloids that can harm the liver. I don't doubt the toxicity at all, but I think it deserves a little unpacking. Others who've written about this plant before me are great resources here.
It should come as no surprise that the most succinct excerpt I can find comes from Sam Thayer's Field Guide to Edible Plants of Eastern North America:
"Comfrey contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which are liver toxins-the greens much less than the roots. While the greens have been eaten for thousands of years, chronic consumption of large amounts has resulted in serious medical issues. However, most comfrey-related problems have resulted from persistent medicinal use of comfrey root tea or extracts".
My colleague in Scotland Monica Wilde has one of the best articles I've seen on it, going into great detail on the toxicity, especially regarding common comfrey vs cultivars and hybrids. She only eats common comfrey and avoids eating hybrids.
Traditional Comfrey Recipes
I've eaten comfrey leaves a few times, but always in small amounts. Comfrey leaves can be eaten raw or cooked, they're much better cooked. And when I say they're furry, I mean it.
While they're not bad tasting, they're nothing special-think mild spinach with a furry texture. As borage is comparable, but easy to grow and a much better edible, I don't eat the leaves much.
Comfrey flowers are a different story, and I've been serving them sprinkled on salads in miniscule amounts to the public for around 10 years now without issue.
I harvest comfrey flowers, as well as the whole clusters of unopened blooms to toss in salads. A typical serving for me is a few (3-4 clusters) is per person, or roughly one ounce.
There's undoubtedly more examples, but in my research over the years I've noted two notable instances of comfrey leaves documented as a food, with one of them being much more widespread than the other.
Italy
The first time I read about cooking comfrey leaves was in Patience Grey's classic book Honey From a Weed. One interesting thing I noted is that she appears to use Russian and common comfrey leaves together.
"Having transplanted a wild form of comfrey from the neighboring ravine into the garden and having imported Russian Comfrey, I sometimes include their leaves in a dish of weeds."
She goes on to describe mixing torn young comfrey leaves (known as consolida in Italian) with sea beet, borage, and shoots of wild fennel, frying them in oil until tender and serving with grated pecorino. I've made it a few times, and it's a perfectly acceptable way to enjoy a blend of wild greens.
Use my recipe for cicoria en padella and serve it with griddled Italian bread and gratings of pecorino. I'd recommend at least 6 plants in equal proportions, with one of them being young comfrey leaves.
Kenya
By far the most robust tradition of comfrey being used as a vegetable I can see comes from Kenya. You Tube is a great resource here and there's many videos showing comfrey leaves, young and old, being cooked into a deeply traditional dish known as mukimo.
Coincidentally, I have relatives with Kenyan heritage who were nice enough to elaborate a little on the dish for me. Special thanks to my second cousin Odera, (author of the book Staring at the Nyanza Sun) and his Wife Wanjira for entertaining my questions.
Wanjira's description of the dish, lightly edited for clarity below.
"Mukimo, is a mount Kenya region dish with slight sub regional variations. The base is corn, beans, green leaves and potatoes boiled together then mashed (not pureed). We also would use leaves from black eyed peas, and other leaves that were never planted but grew as weeds. The flavors are good just boiled or after mashing but you could fry onions in a little oil, add the boiled mix and let cook briefly before mashing, or just add butter. I like adding chili peppers to mine for a kick. It's also great with a of "wet fry"--beef cubes sautéed in a thick sauce of tomatoes and spices."
Conclusion
Comfrey is a plant humans have used for a very long time as a food and medicine. While modern references mostly refer to its toxicity, most of them are discussing the root, which is more toxic than the leaves.
The leaves and flowers can be used in small amounts as a novelty and probably not as a regular part of a diet. If you have a garden, you might consider growing comfrey to attract bees, using the leaves as fertilizer for other edible plants, and reaching for a sprinkle of the flowers to gild the occasional salad.
Laura Nevins
Like Nick above I also love a comfrey salve. Sometimes infused in olive oil and sometimes castor oil, depending on intent of use. It can sit for a couple of weeks or if it's of urgent need, gently heated in a mason jar or glass bowl in a hot water bath for a few hours. I like it blended with shea butter and sometimes a variety of herbs, again depending on the intended use. Among a number of herbs it works great with I like it in combination with plantain, calendula and/or lavender. Thanks again for a wonderful post!
Alan Bergo
Thanks Laura. I just love all the uses eve try one has shared here.
KellyD
Love this amazing and beautiful plant, Alan! Thanks for your shared info!
I've made a poultice for over 35 years with lots of the fresh mucilaginous root and some of the whole plant (as I am a fan of whole plant medicine.) I chop it roughly and blend it in a high-powered blender with just enough apple cider vinegar to make it smooth like a pesto. The acidity helps it absorb into the skin better, and the poultice that it creates is a spectacular broken bone and soft-tissue healer. I have used it with remarkable results for various broken bones and ligament injuries. I make it for others too! It is best to keep it on the skin as long as possible, and if you can cover the injured area with poultice covered in plastic (wrap or bag) and then tape all the edges so it's not leaky, I'd recommend letting it stay on the body overnight. I've also added the poultice to body temp water in a small cooler to use as a medicinal soak multiple times a day when I had a broken ankle. Speeded up my recovery for sure, and shocked the Dr, who (of course) had never heard of Comfrey.
Alan Bergo
Kelly this is great, thanks for sharing.
Carla Beaudet
A friend gave me a small bit of comfrey several years back, and I put it in the ground next to the compost pile, thinking I might make compost tea with it; still thinking that, haven't done it. The only thing I have done with it is pureed a leaf along with some aloe to make a gel for soothing sunburn, and that certainly was soothing and seemed effective. I haven't yet eaten it, but the flowers are pretty and seem safe enough as a salad decoration, so I'll be trying them. Really no inclination to eat the greens.
Alan Bergo
Yeah the leaves are a novelty for me with everything else the plant can do. Borage I will grow for the leaves though.
Heather Hardt
I have used comfrey medicinally for years. I always have poltices I make from the chopped root and leaves wrapped in cheese cloth in my freezer to use for all kinds of things.
I have raised beds of it and made a green manure tea out of comfrey and nettle leaves for garden vegetables. It propagates voraciously from root cutting so you never want to rototill through a patch to try to get rid of it.
Alan Bergo
Thanks Heather good tip on the rototiller. It will definitely fill out a space!
sylvie
I make a salve of comfrey leaves using olive oil, our own beeswax, and honey. It's truly fabulous for bruises, sprain and the likes. It really works. My herbalist friends always cauton again making sure that if using it on broken skin, the underlying wound is clean: comfrey knits skins back so fast that it can seal infection in!
Dave
Halfway through this article, I went over and nibbled on a bit of one of the pale purple flowers. If I don't write back in half an hour, my address is...q8fmyoi4w[69u2i
Just kidding. But I did nibble the flower. Will nibble a little more every half hour or so. Aunt Edith wanted me to kill her "aggressive" (the word just means vibrant and healthy) comfrey for her compost. Fair enough. But it's hard on a sensitive soul like me to kill something so lively.
Alan Bergo
Killing comfrey is harder than you might think 🙂
Ora
a timely post thanks Alan (as i was reading i had a vision of a friend eating the flowers) - a friend is needing comfrey flowers for a neural de-tox. a .'detoxing fear' effect. Also not commonly known, using comfrey leaves for ulcers and ulcerated wounds.
Alan Bergo
Thanks Ora.
Lindy van der Meulen
Comfrey was my initiator into the world of healing plants. My recently acquired already 6-month older border collie stood watch over my 12 year old border collie with hip problems and already on regular veterinary prescribed pain relief. The older dog had never snacked on those plants in my front garden before the youngster came (one of those born wise dogs) that was in 2002. I started looking into what this plant was and used it on my in foot after a nasty fall, bruising receded within hours, then a daughter who had fallen and couldn't walk properly came for the afternoon, I just wrapped the leaves around her foot, a couple of hours later the same day she was playing street badminton with her sister and brothers outside our house.
One of the brothers had fallen earlier that day from his bike during hill trail cycling and also gad a foot injury. I tried the same remedy on him and a few days later he phoned me with the exclamation;
"What did you put on my foot? It is completely healed! I never saw anything like it"
After these episodes I learnt how to make the ointment comparable to what is written above. I use a piece of root for my salve. I also kept a piece of root in medical alcohol for rubbing on stiffness pain.
It is a narvellous plant and deserves its name of knit bone.
It works so well and so quickly that you must not use it if there is any fracture that is not correctly set because that will also heal quickly but not properly aligned.
I have used the leaves like dohlma leaves are used in Greece with cooked minced meat and vegetables rolled into them, tied around then braised. They are perfectly tasty if ever so slightly bitter.
However because of the pyrolizidine that can build up in our livers it's not a vegetable I would eat frequently.
By the way it is now 2025 and I have a border collie who is the granddaughter of my "Shamanic border collie Sam". her father John lived to be 15 and he too knew about comfrey.
I named my pup born in 2018 Gaia to honour the Earth Deity because I believe that there are some who walk here that have this knowledge of the wonders of this earth built into their very being.
Go Well Alan and thank you for all your sharing.
Alan Bergo
I support a shamanic border collie 🙂
Leslea
Alan, we use Comfrey around the farm for wound healing and the blisters that you can get from walking through wild parsnip. We use it mostly in a tea form and sop it on, very soothing tea. At times have mashed the green leaves for the mucilaginous wound gel/poultice. It heals wounds very fast. Always have a jar of dehydrated leaves on hand. I also feed it to my broiler chicks when I get them each spring, they love the flowers, it is entertaining to watch them get hold of the big purple flowers running around playing keep away.
We have loads of the common comfrey and one patch of a much less invasive hybrid. Thanks for writing about comfrey.
Alan Bergo
Thanks Leslea!
AllisonK
Three years ago I planted a couple of comfrey root cuttings--one purchased online, and one from a friend. I now have a total of six plants, as four volunteers have popped up in weird places thanks to critters or birds. Comfrey leaves are great for jump-starting or accelerating a compost pile!
Alan Bergo
Thanks Allison.
Dale
After leaving the Army where I had drunk coffee all day that had been brewed and stewed in a 30 cup Aluminum coffee maker, I found that the mild Stateside stuff irritated my stomach. At that time dried comfrey root was sold in health food stores and a daily cup of tea for a week and all symptoms disappeared. So did the root a few years later. I grow it now for chop & drop mulch but would not hesitate to use it for survival greens.
Alan Bergo
Thanks Dale. I can't wait to have enough for mulch at my place after seeing how vibrant it can make other plants in a space.
Nick
I've used comfrey in a salve before and it was amazing to use on joints. I let the leaves soak in olive oil for a few weeks, then removed the leaves and mixed the oil with beeswax using 6:1 ratio of oil to beeswax for a soft texture. Stuff is amazing on ankles, knees and wrists. I highly recommend it. Also heard about stuffing larger leaves with rice/meat/onion and baking in tomato sauce. Just like cabbage rolls.
Alan Bergo
Thanks Nick!
Gilbert
Leaves have a cucumber taste like borage.
Caution, a piece of leaf not fully dry or decomposed may start to grow if put in soil.
As Paracelsus wrote 500 years ago, host, dose, timing and combinations make a poison or a cure.
In France there's a strong tradition to eat young leaves in salad. Consoude, like English pseudonym Boneknit tells you a principal virtue.
Now's the time of year for plantain leaves foraging!
Alan Bergo
Thanks Gilbert.
Karen
Hi Nick
Are you using dried or fresh leaves?
drokthwart
"... Virginia bluebells. It's a very distinctive plant, but does bare some resemblance to foxglove..." ^Not "bare" ... but "bear".
Alan Bergo
Thanks Drok.
Rebecca
I've been told it has bioavailable calcium. If you need to get rid of it, pasture laying hens on it. They love it for strengthening their egg shells.
Alan Bergo
Thanks Rebecca.
Dave
True. Although...