Forty years ago when I embarked on my journey as a midwife and a mother, I learned about the healing properties of comfrey and goldenseal through my herbal studies in midwifery practice. Comfrey, Symphytum officinale is a miraculous plant that long has been used to heal damaged skin and mend broken bones. As a midwife I prepared comfrey leaf and root in an infusion to be used in a sitz bath, or as a compress, for healing perineal tears, abrasions, and episiotomies. Comfrey could also be found growing in my garden where I would gather, chop and simmer it in a nourishing postpartum soup to help with internal healing of the new mother’s placental site, and to build blood and insure an adequate breast milk supply. I later wrote about this magnificent and misunderstood herb for internal healing in my book, Wisdom of the Plant Devas: Herbal Medicine for a New Earth.

Goldenseal root powder, Hydrastis canadensis, was the other ingredient I used along with sea salt in the postpartum sitz bath. These ingredients helped to reduce inflammation, prevent infection, soothe and astringe tissue. The results were phenomenal.

Most homebirth midwives forty years ago did not have the ability to carry lidocaine, nor had we been taught how to suture perineal tears. This was one of the reasons I fought in the Florida legislature alongside other women to help change the outdated lay midwifery laws. We were successful in this effort and subsequently founded the South Florida School of Midwifery in order to train and license home birth midwives, otherwise known as lay, or direct entry midwives.

Before I had the ability to suture, I became very skilled in preventing perineal tearing and adept at healing tears and abrasions that may have occurred during delivery. Even after I began suturing it was important to help the perineum heal well and quickly. Comfrey-Goldenseal sitz baths always did the trick.

To illustrate this ability of comfrey-goldenseal to heal perineal tears, I would like to share one of my earliest experiences with a mother who tore severely because of a precipitous birth. She had to be taken to the hospital to be sutured by her back up physician, who lacking in bedside manner made the following statement upon his examination. “It looks like a hand grenade went off in there!”

Determined to help this mother heal I proceeded to prepare comfrey-goldenseal compresses, applied twice daily for the first two days, and then a comfrey-goldenseal sitz bath twice daily for the remainder of the week until her follow up visit. I accompanied her to the follow up, and upon examination the same physician looked up at me, then back at the mother, then back at me and said, “This isn’t the same woman you brought in here a week ago is it?” He couldn’t believe that she had healed so well and so quickly.

I began my midwifery career at the same time that I became a mother. As the mother of two young kids who were always banging their knees, skinning elbows, or otherwise collecting scratches, bumps, bug bites and bruises as they explored their world, I decided to make a healing salve using the same two main ingredients, comfrey and goldenseal, which I had been using in the sitz baths. The result was an amazing salve that healed things quickly, and prevented infection and scarring. It has lived in my medicine cabinet ever since.

What makes this salve different than most that you will find on the market, is the quantity of goldenseal root powder in the formula. Because goldenseal is very expensive (over $100 pound) most herbalists and manufacturers use goldenseal leaf instead, and very little root. It is the quantity of goldenseal root that makes it so effective.

I also use both comfrey leaf and root in my formula so as to achieve the healing benefits of both parts of this plant. Comfrey root may contain 8 to 10 percent allantoin, which is easily absorbed through the skin and found to a lesser degree in the leaves. Allantoin promotes cell growth to speed wound healing. Comfrey leaf also aids in healing mucous membranes and protects the skin against irritants, making it an essential ingredient in salves and ointments for the treatment of wounds, burns, bruises, cuts, sprains, chapped lips, dry vagina, cold sores, diaper rash, bug bites, nail fungus, and skin irritations.

While I have made batches of my Comfrey-Goldenseal Healing Salve over the years for friends and family, it wasn’t until I stared teaching at herbal medicine conferences that I started making it for public consumption. To date it has been used by dozens of people including doctors, veterinarians, and a plastic surgeon who recommended it to his patients because of its ability to reduce scarring. It is especially useful for animals because all of the ingredients are edible and animals tend to lick their wounds.

Because I want for you to also have a relationship with these healing herbs, and because I would like to empower you to make your own salve or to help someone heal after giving birth, I have included my formulas for both postpartum sitz bath and a healing root salve.

Comfrey-Goldenseal Healing Salve

Ingredients (preferably organic):

3 ¼ cup cold pressed olive oil

¾ cup unrefined sesame oil (high in Vit. E and acts as a preservative and skin healer)

2 oz. comfrey leaf

2 oz. comfrey root, cut and sifted

2 oz. goldenseal root powder

golden beeswax beads, approx. 4 oz.

1 tablespoon Vit. E oil, or wheatgerm oil (acts as a preservative and skin healer)

Bake in a warm oven (lowest setting possible ,approx. 170º) in an enamel pot for 4 hours stirring with a wooden spoon every 30 minutes or so. Strain through a fine cheesecloth and press into a measuring cup. Measure and return oil to clean pot on stove top. Add beeswax (1 oz. per cup) and stir on low heat until melted. Add wheatgerm or vitamin E oil, stir well and remove from heat. Fill containers immediately as it will harden quickly upon cooling. Stir once in container with a wooden chopstick to redistribute and prevent settling.

Comfrey-Goldenseal Sitz Bath

Ingredients:

1 gallon of water

2 ounces comfrey root, cut and sifted

2 ounces goldenseal root powder

2 ounces dried comfrey leaf (or 2 cups chopped fresh comfrey)

2 tablespoons sea salt

Simmer comfrey and goldenseal root for thirty minutes uncovered. Add comfrey leaf and salt. Stir to dissolve salt then cover and remove from heat. Let steep 15-20 minutes. Strain and use as hot as possible in a compress, or sitz bath. Heat also brings more blood into the area, which aids in healing. Note: may burn slightly at first, but quickly becomes soothing.

Testimonials

That salve is great stuff. I’ve been suffering with lots of hand abuse issues as a hand drummer and musician, and it has expedited healing and helping to cause the shedding of injured tissue and replacing it with new. – M. Olson/Tucson, AZ

Thea’s Comfrey-Goldenseal Salve is an amazing healing potion for the skin. I has numerous stiches on my face from surgery due to skin cancer, and now six-months later, after using the salve nightly, the results are unbelievable! People, even my plastic surgeon are amazed with how my face looks. I am so happy to have found such a terrific healer for the skin. – C. Carter/Key Largo, FL

Promise, a Morgan colt born at Carpe Diem Farms, is healing beautifully. I am using the salve daily and we are working on scar reduction/elimination. Dr. Claudle has difficulty believing that he survived and is amazed at the speed in which he healed. Thank you for your help. – S. Blair/Highlands, NC

Thea’s Comfrey-Goldenseal Salve healed my son’s diaper rash faster than any other diaper rash ointment I’ve used. – A. Blanton/Highlands, NC

Your salve is the first of many that I have tried on Yazi’s ears (wolf-dog) that affected any healing. His ears are now almost back to normal. Your salve is something very good. Keep telling people about it, I believe in it. – Hannah/Taos, NM

Thea’s medicine salve saved the day. After an irritating condition vaginally, and not accepting hormonal salve as a remedy, my suffering has ended. Thank you. – B. Martz/Tucson, AZ

Thea’s Comfrey-Goldenseal Healing Salve has been wonderful. It provides a soothing quality I haven’t found in any other product. I had an infected tattoo and within 3 days the infection subsided, and the salve soothed my skin to health. I highly recommend it. – A. Graser/Asheville, NC