[permaculture-oceania] feeding pigs - defending comfrey

[Robyn Francis]

Hi Penny
Wow, comfrey has really had a hard time since the media blow out back in the
1980¹s.  I¹m am absolutely astounded that anyone could die from comfrey ­ is
that story hearsay or do you have a definite reputable source of info on
that?

Comfrey was the first herb targeted by the pharmaceutical multi-corps back
in the 1980¹s. CSIRO did a trial feeding massive concentrate quantities of
an alkaloid found in comfrey (and silverbeet and many other edible dark
green veg) and the rats eventually developed liver abnormalities. The
official CSIRO word was that the specific alkaloid in massive concentrate
continuous doses was harmful but the fresh leaf was as harmless as spinach
and could be eaten freely without side effects. Naturally the tabloids had a
field day with front page headlines reading COMFREY ­ KILLER HERB  and the
like and blew it all out of proportion but the mud has stuck and killer
comfrey stories have grown and perpetuated since then.

NB I operated a commercial herb farm & nursery at the time so followed this
quite closely

I have no reservations feeding myself or my animals comfrey as part of a
balanced diet. For myself I eat the young leaves before the hairs get too
prickly ­ BTW there¹s lots of prickly edibles around, perhaps its the plants
response to overgrazing so it wont get eaten to extinction....?

Ciao
Robyn

On 14/6/06 10:04 AM, "P Ferguson" <pennyfer at bigpond.net.au> wrote:

>  
>>  
>> 
>> Robyn wrote: My piggies absolutely love comfrey – haven’t let them loose on
>> the comfrey patch but they enjoy eating both leaves and roots. I’m
>> considering expanding my comfrey production for all my animals.
>> Ciao
>> Robyn
>> 
>> "Moderation in all things good and abstinence from all things bad" was the
>> motto of an organisation called the Health and Temperence Society which used
>> to send their monthly magazine to primary school in the far distant past!
>>  
>> Herbals whether plants or medication are not necessarily harmless!  Comfrey
>> got a bad name when a young fellow who ate comfrey died and its toxicity was
>> blamed [someone lse said he was on a grape fast and didn't wash off the
>> spray!].  I have only seen comfrey used as an external poultice, I haven't
>> yet come across anyone who actually ingested it.
>>  
>> As pigs [bless them] are close enough to us to suffer the similarly whether
>> from food, toxins, diseases, blows [forensics use pig carcass to test
>> weapons] and be sensitive to the same things.
>>  
>> Steady on the comfy, Robyn.
>>  
>> Besides, I am suspicious of anything with a hairy leaf being ingested.
>> Its a long time ago, but remember that case in China where chooks and humans
>> were suffering from growths in the oesophagus, fatal for the chooks, and
>> early deaths for the humans?  Scientists eventually put that down to the
>> hairy husks of a grain both were eating.
>>  
>> P Ferguson
>> Illawarra NSW
>>  
>>  
> 
> 
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