Comfrey, a native European plant, belongs to the borage family and, it’s scientific name is Symphytum officinale. Let’s break that name down a bit shall we? Symphytum originally comes from the Greek symphytos which means to knit together (1). This is exactly what comfrey does, it helps tissue knit back together. Officinale is a designation given to plants that were used broadly by early doctors for their healing benefits and became part of the official pharmacopeia (list of medicines). So, just by looking at the name for comfrey, we already know we are looking at some powerful medicine here.