North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Lutesville" <Lutesville@cox.net>]

> I looked up "comfrey" on google because I wanted to know what it looks
> like.  Curiously, in the first couple of links i found sites promoting
> its use as a digestive aid and for wound healing, and sites warning
> about how very toxic the plant is, and how you shouldn't ingest it or
> expose broken skin to it.  I gather substances in it are toxic to the
> liver and promote cancers.  (Of course, promoting cell growth might
> both promote cancer and also promote wound healing, I suppose.)
>
> Ginda

Ginda,
Comfrey has been used for thousands of years to heal wounds and aid
digestion. Can it cause cancer? I expect it can, but I don't personally
know. One thing you should look at when something is found to cause cancer
is the amount needed to trigger the cancer. Very often, when the government
says an item causes cancer, it has no lobbiests on it's side, and it has
been used in such concentrations that the cancer isn't suprizing.

The Bible says "All things in moderation...", and I believe this is a key
that most studies have ignored. Modern man has limited their diet to such a
small number of foods, that they no longer get all the nutritional bits and
pieces they need. Then we add  huge quantities of chemicals and artificial
stuff to the diet and we see almost epidemic levels of cancer, heart
disease, and other modern diseases.

Okay, I am wandering far from my point here. What I mean to say is that
sure, if you eat a pound of comfrey at each meal every day, you will
possibly develop cancer due to the comfrey. But if you have a cup of comfrey
tea once or twice a week, and wrap a comfrey leaf around the odd wound, I
doubt it can cause problems.

I heard it was good for chickens, so I planted some outside the chicken run.
Whether from too much chicken manure, too little water, or too much shade,
it never did well, and died a couple of years after I planted it. Too bad.

Joyce