Planned to post this sooner but my computer crashed as I wrote.

In a post about iron rich foods, I spotted comfrey listed - I cannot feel
comfortable with this plant or others that are now known to contain toxic
pryrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs). Toxic PAs cause cummulative veno-occlusive
liver disease.

  Common comfrey (Symphytum officinale) is known to contain "small" amounts of
hepatotoxic PAs, but Russian comfrey ( Symphytum asperum or S. X uplandica )
has high levels of these toxins.  A survey in Canada revealed Russian comfrey
and significant amounts of toxic PAs to be present in a large number of
comfrey products, even those labelled common comfrey.  Consequently, the
Canadian government does not allow comfrey in foods.


That's the scary stuff.  After the birth of my daughter 10 years ago, and at
the casual suggestion of a relative, I drank literally gallons of comfrey leaf
tea - made nice and stong, as well as used it as a poultice for my bottom (
currently also not recommended for open skin).  I stopped drinking that quart
or more a day after a few weeks, and drifted back to coffee.

It seems clear that I had been taking common comfrey - if this product had
been Russian Comfrey, we ( the dyad) probably would have developed liver
failure.  I  assume that a) PAs probably enter breastmilk being alkaloids, and
b) mercifully the breast protectively filtered out most of it for my daughter.
I feel that my daughter and I have used up one of our nine lives on this one,
just the same.

Would recommend from personal experience that anyone taking large amounts of
any one plant ( food, herb ) to find out the latest information on it,
especially if pregnant and/or lactating.  Cannot understand or agree with
continuing recommendations of "comfrey" for post-partum use.

Keeping perspective, seems I learn at least 20 new reassuring things about
foods and/or herbs to every one "scary" thing uncovered.

Sheila Humphrey  BSc(Botany)  RN  IBCLC
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