Comfrey and Ginger Healing Balm

Comfrey (Symphytum officinalis) known for it’s green leaves and purple flowers, can be found growing wild all over the British isles. We have large patches of comfrey growing within a hundred yards of our house and back in late spring I collected some comfrey, made the leaves into small bundles and hung them to dry in a cool dark room.

Another name given to comfrey is ‘knit bone’ and comfrey can be used to treat all manor of injuries and joint problems from breaks and sprains to arthritis.

Some medicinal actions of comfrey are:  Anti-hemorrhagic, anti-inflammatory, astringent, expectorant,  anti-rheumatic, cell-proliferant, vulnerary,demulcent, hemostatic, cell proliferant (root), wound/tissue healer, bone healer.

Over the weekend our youngest had a minor accident on his bike and picked up a small fracture to his ankle, so I decided to put my dried comfrey to use and make it into a healing balm.

I needed this balm as soon as possible so I decided to do a hot infusion overnight in my oven, I took the comfrey and chopped it finely with a sharp knife, half filled a sterile jar with dried leaves and poured over melted coconut oil until almost full, giving the mixture a good stir to get any dry pockets out and topping up to the brim with more coconut oil. I put on the lid and placed the jar in my oven and left this overnight to infuse at 70 degrees C.

This morning I removed the jar from the oven and gave it a good shake, the oil had taken on a deep green colour. The oil was then strained and measured at 300 ml. I worked out that to make into a balm I would need 70g of beeswax and as and extra healing ingredient I decided to add some Ginger essential oil at a 1% dilution rate (90 drops) see table. Ginger has anti-inflammatory properties and will help to ease muscle pain around the break and aid the repair of any muscle sprains and soft tissue damage.

I gently melted the beeswax to a bain-marie and then slowly added the oil stirring until all beeswax had melted and the liquid was clear, the heat was removed and the essential oil was then added, the liquid given a final stir and then poured into a large 500g glass jar to set.

I will be applying this balm to my son’s ankle over the coming weeks 3 times a day and also giving him Reiki. He will have to wear a boot to get around for a few weeks but I’m sure he will be fully healed soon enough.