Symphytum officinale is a perennial flowering plant in the family Boraginaceae. Along with thirty four other species of Symphytum, it is known as comfrey. To differentiate it from other members of the genus Symphytum, this species is known as common comfrey[1] or true comfrey. Other English names include boneset, knitbone, consound, and slippery-root. It is native to Europe, growing in damp, grassy places. It is locally frequent throughout Ireland and Britain on river banks and ditches. It occurs elsewhere, including North America, as an introduced species and sometimes a weed. The flowers are mostly visited by bumblebees.
Comfrey (Symphytum officinale )
Over centuries, comfrey was cultivated in Asia, Europe, and the United Kingdom as a vegetable and herbal medicine. Its early common names, knitbone or boneset, reflect its historical use by poultices of leaves and roots to treat sprains, bruises or bone fractures. Also the roots could be mashed then packed around a broken limb, when dried they formed a hardened 'plaster cast'.
In folklore, Symphytum officinale roots were used in traditional medicine internally (as a herbal tea or tincture) or externally (as ointment, compresses, or alcoholic extract) for treatment of various disorders, including commonly as a treatment for reducing the pain of osteoarthritis. John Gerard, an English herbalist (1545–1612), mentions "the slimie substance of the roote made in a possett of ale" would help back pains. The leaves were also thought to be edible as a vegetable, similar to spinach.