The Truth About Comfrey: Sacred Healing, Scientific Controversy & Suppressed Herbal Wisdom
On this The Veritas Botanica Podcast episode, we will be talking with Gabriel Monaghan, master herbalist and founder of Ho’olono Natural Remedies. Gabriel is a Lāʻau lapaʻau medicine practitioner in the Hawaiian Islands. He trained for over 12 years with native medicine men, learning the ancient indigenous methods of the spiritual and botanical sacred healing arts. He also carries the lineage of Dr. John Christopher and graduated from the School of Natural Healing. Gabriel has his own herbal medicine school and teaches herbal healing classes all over the Hawaiian Islands.
Gabriel owns an herb farm on the Hawaii islands, grows medicine for the local people, and ships Hawaiian medicine products all over the world. He has been cultivating Comfrey on his farm for over 15 years, and is one of the most experienced and educated herbalists alive today on the subject and utilization of Comfrey.
Key Takeaways:
This episode examines the historical suppression of herbal medicine in the United States during the late 1980s and early 1990s, when regulatory agencies attempted to restrict access to herbs and supplements. We explore how Comfrey became a primary target during this period, despite thousands of years of documented traditional use.
The scientific allopathic model only understands herbs by isolating individual plant chemicals. They administer them to rats at abnormally high doses, then use those results to characterize the entire plant as dangerous. In contrast, traditional herbalism uses the full spectrum of the plant, where naturally occurring constituents interact together and may balance or neutralize compounds that appear harmful when studied in isolation.
1. Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) are indeed dangerous when isolated, but can be neutralized by other constituents in the plant and by supporting liver function. Rats are highly sensitive to PAs, while pigs, sheep, and butterflies tolerate or even benefit from them. Human genetics are closer to pigs than to rats, so concluding human effects based solely on rat studies is limited.
2. Comfrey has been used and consumed internally throughout human history. During the Irish potato famine, many people survived on comfrey due to its rich protein matrix and high mineral and vitamin content.
3. Comfrey has remarkable healing properties, and we review incredible cases involving comfrey, including severe burns, ACL injuries, bone healing, stomach ulcers, liver disease, and surfing accidents involving deeply embedded coral.
4. We deep dive into the profound regenerative role of allantoin. Comfrey is one of the few plants that contains allantoin, and this compound is widely credited for comfrey’s ability to rapidly stimulate tissue proliferation and repair. The human body was meant to regenerate and heal from injury and illness, yet much of this knowledge has been repressed and lost. We speculate on the medical industries that might go out of business if this plant had not been infamously repressed.
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Facebook: Caitlin Woolery
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Facebook: Gabriel Monaghan
Website: https://www.hoolono.com
