Learn how to make your own homemade comfrey salve. Comfrey has many medicinal benefits and is excellent for helping to heal minor wounds. This homemade comfrey salve helps to heal minor wounds fast!
Medicinal Benefits of Comfrey
I’m always amazed by the power of herbal medicine!
Comfrey is one of those herbs that truly has healing properties and is excellent when used in a salve. It is a plant that I will always have growing in my medicinal herb garden, even if it does have a tendency to spread.
Comfrey is a potent anti-inflammatory wound healer and both the root and leaves can be used. Also known as knitbone, comfrey is commonly used externally as a poultice for wounds, sores, burns, and fractures.
It makes an excellent salve, either on its own or combined with other healing herbs like calendula, plantain, yarrow, or lavender.
Comfrey speeds healing and promotes the growth of new skin cells. It should not be used on deep or infected wounds as it will heal the surface first and could potentially seal in an infection.
There is conflicting evidence on the safety of using comfrey internally, so please do your own research and proceed with caution.
Using it externally, like in this salve or as a poultice, is perfectly safe!
Besides being medicinal, comfrey is also great for the garden and makes an excellent natural compost tea.
How to Make Comfrey Infused Oil
Before making this salve, you will need to make a comfrey infused oil.
I use dried comfrey leaf that I harvest from my garden and dry on homemade drying screens.
You can also purchase organic dried comfrey leaf from Mountain Rose Herbs.
Fill a pint jar about ½ to ⅔rds full of dried comfrey leaf, then cover the plant material with your carrier oil of choice.
You can use a single carrier oil or a combination of oils. My favorite combination for making salves is equal parts of olive, coconut, and sweet almond oils.
Let the oil infuse in a cool and dark place for 4-6 weeks (or longer) before making this salve. Strain out the comfrey leaf before using in this recipe.
Comfrey Salve Recipe
To make the salve, first create a makeshift double boiler by putting a small bowl or a glass Pyrex measuring cup over a pot with about an inch of simmering water.
Put the comfrey oil and beeswax into the small bowl or Pyrex, and heat until the beeswax completely dissolves into the oil, stirring occasionally.
Add the shea butter and stir until it completely dissolves.
Carefully pour the mixture into small jars or tins and let sit until the salve sets up completely.
This comfrey salve is one that I always have on hand in my herbal medicine cabinet.
Comfrey has so many healing benefits, and this salve is amazing for healing minor cuts, scrapes, and wounds. It really works wonders!
Herbal Salve Recipes
Here are some other herbal salve recipes you may like:
- Dandelion Salve
- Calendula Salve
- Cannabis CBD Salve
- St. John’s Wort Salve
- How to Make an Herbal Salve
- Herbal Bug Balm Salve
- Diaper Rash Salve
Comfrey Salve
Ingredients
Comfrey Infused Oil
- 2 cups carrier oil of choice
- 1 cup dried comfrey leaves
Comfrey Salve
- 1 cup comfrey infused oil
- 1 ounce beeswax
- 1 ounce refined shea butter
Instructions
Comfrey Infused Oil
- Fill a pint jar about ½ to ⅔rds full of dried comfrey leaf, then cover the plant material with your carrier oil of choice.
- Let the oil infuse in a cool and dark place for 4-6 weeks (or longer).
- Strain out the comfrey leaf before using in this recipe.
Comfrey Salve
- Create a makeshift double boiler by putting a small bowl or a glass Pyrex measuring cup over a pot with about an inch of simmering water.
- Put the comfrey oil and beeswax into the small bowl or Pyrex, and heat until the beeswax completely dissolves into the oil, stirring occasionally.
- Add the shea butter and stir until it completely dissolves.
- Carefully pour the mixture into small jars or tins and let sit until the salve sets up completely.
For your carrier oil combo, do you use fractionated coconut oil?
Hi Kat. I use refined coconut oil, but you definitely could use fractionated.
I’ve been making infused oils & salves for 16 years and have never experienced them going rancid. I store them in a cool dry place. While the viscosity may stiffen over time and the potency of the phytochemicals will decrease, using vitamin E as a preservative works very well. Use 4 drops to a cup of infused oil at the end of processing.
Hi. I made this comfrey salve per recipe. and like it a lot. However, the texture has become grainy after a couple of weeks? Did I do something wrong? Do I need to temper the fat mixture? Thank you.
Some oils, like shea butter, when exposed to different temperatures melt and recrystallize if they aren’t cooled rapidly. I will usually keep my homemade salves refrigerated to ensure they’re always at a consistent temperature.
Hi! Why refined shea butter? can be unrefined? what’s the difference?
Thank you!!!
Hi there, you can use unrefined, but be aware that it does have a strong scent that not everyone likes. Refined shea butter has no scent.
This salve has been in the making for a long time. I bought the seeds grew the plants and had misplaced the recipe. Finally dried the leaves -soaked the leaves- and today made the salve. Anxious to give it a try.
My only suggestion is you show a 1 cup pyrex. By the time you add the beeswax and Shea it overflows. Thanks again for sharing
Hello! I am making a healing salve with comfrey, calendula and plantain. I was thinking about adding some cannabis but can’t find anything on the net about mixing these herbs. Do you have any thoughts?
Thank you
Hi Jennifer, I think that sounds like a great combination!
I had made a tincture of comfrey, lavendar and lambs ear with vodka. Was ready to put it in dropper bottles when I saw comfrey should not be ingested. Would it work as a topical spray, or addition to a poultice? Would it work to use it with beeswax and/or shea butter since it is vodka and not oil? I hate to waste it…..
I drink one comfrey leaf twice a week it cured all my pain.One comfrey leaf,one glass of water,one glass of ice goes into my vitamix blender for one minute then its bottoms up tastes like a mild cucumber juice and abra cadabra no more back pain and no more arthritus pain in my hands or hip.More people die of aspirin every day of the week then have died of comfrey in recorded history.
How big of a comfrey leaf are you talking here
After i strain my comfrey and am left with my infused oils, does it get harder, more like an ointment, less like an oil? Also, how long before it gets rancid?
No it won’t get harder unless you add some beeswax and/or some kind of butter like shea butter. If you use dried comfrey leaves and store the oil away from heat and light it will stay good for up to a year or more.