A Safe Place to Talk about Comfrey

This is point PSM 411 from the living document Permies is the Best Social Media Platform on the internet .  I had to put it in the Cider Press because things get crazy when you use the C-word.  

Say I want to talk about Comfrey.  In today's internet, Comfrey studies and data are disappearing rapidly due to dirty corporate influence and the desire of some to commandeer traditional knowledge and monetize it as intellectual property.  Suppose I were to post about Comfrey on fb or (heaven forbid) reddit.  In that case, I will suddenly have hundreds of focused and strategic trolls tearing it apart, or it will quietly disappear, or it will be drowned in a sea of invisibility, or it will be labeled as unsafe and dangerous.  It's wild out there.  Thank goodness for the Cider Press, the only place on the internet that is safe from such nastiness for public discourse about things like Comfrey.

I didn't realize that Comfrey was so contentious.

Is it because of the term "Dynamic Accumulator?"

Is it because of the warnings against ingestion?

I know that it is a 'sexy' plant for a lot of Permies and a bunch of videos are out there about it. I have Bocking 14 planted and just ordered some Bocking 4 for chicken forage. I might be a Comfrey outlaw now

Evidence shows that big pharma is working to synthesize, own and monetize allantoin as a powerful healing compound.  It would be in their interest to demonize discredit undercut the use of naturally occurring allantoin, present in an incredibly useful and safe form in Comfrey.  The herbalist community just about has a conniption any time you even mention the possible use of Comfrey internally, despite clearly skewed data.  Even generally trustworthy sources are clearly working to advance this false narrative.  Not sure if they're getting paid, they're just afraid, or they have taken the bait of ethical high ground.

Thank you for the reply! I have learned something new, I'll have to do a deeper dive to learn about allantoin.

So far fairly troll-free, although not protected by the Cider Press.  Permies is awesome.

https://permies.com/t/37681/Comfrey-internally-figure-research

lol what on earth...? so..are they looking to illegalize it like weed or...? what is it good for internally?
edit: I just read a bit of the article. Evidently all my herbal sources are too vintage because I've never heard of this controversy!

*please note, not actual medical advice

The local deer discovered during this summer's bad drought, that even though comfrey is a little furry, it's totally edible.

My question now will be, "can I keep my plants alive with that degree of harvesting." I certainly don't chop and drop it anymore.

I did hear some controversy about whether it should, or shouldn't be fed to chickens?

Beau, I'm unclear about how you are "taking it internally", but I'm experimenting more and more with natural chemicals that can absorb through the skin. It does seem as if we've moved away from making poultices - messiness or just a little more time-consuming? I admit however that the first experiment wasn't a natural chemical, but in fact an over the counter oral drug that I wanted in a specific spot, and did not particularly want spread through my whole body. It seemed to work better as a poultice than orally!

I eat it whole, fresh picked as a leaf or flower.  If I am hungry in the garden as a tiny snack.  Or if I cut myself.

I used to use it for green smoothies, but I have gotten out of that habit.

If it's winter and I have a cut, I drink it as a tea.

If I have a puncture wound, I do not use it topically at all, but rather orally.  That way it heals from the inside out.  I once used it as a poultice on a deep cut, and the outside healed too fast, with the inside still lacerated.

I don't think it should only be taken internally, or even primarily.  But it is fine unless you are pounding it relentlessly.

Doc Jones has pointed out that the studies with mice would be the equivalent of a person eating many pounds of comfrey, exclusively, daily, for weeks on end.  "So don't do that and you should be fine" he says.

i have mystery comfrey (sold as just "comfrey"). it has white flowers, and is preposterously prickly. the rabbits will eat it happily if it's wilted a bit (and the young male rabbit will eat it off the plant, as he seems to not really care about anything). i would not consider putting it in my mouth, honestly: just so prickly!!!
i might make a tea with it, but i make comfrey tea for fertilizer..... it doesn't smell bad per se (i think it's better than the stuff i used to drain from the bokashi barrel, for example) but i think i'd have a hard time drinking it because i've associated the smell of the fresh plant with the swamp water tea i make.