All purpose herbal salve recipe with nine different therapeutic herbs including comfrey for rapid tissue healing and inflammation reduction. Great for burns, bruises, rashes, insect bites and moisturizing.
When it comes to salve, I much prefer one that will work for nearly all situations and challenges the skin may encounter. This simplifies things considerably! Everyone knows exactly what to grab and use when a skin problem crops up. It also keeps your medicine cabinet free of unnecessary tubes and jars that are confusing to sort through.
A couple of years ago, I tried a comfrey salve that functions in this manner. I originally purchased it from a local herbalist-in-training and over time, have found it to be the most effective salve I have ever tried.
My family and I have discovered that this comfrey salve works so well that we basically don’t use anything else when we have a skin problem, whether sunburn, bruise, insect bite, windburn, mild rash, or a kitchen scalding. In fact, anytime I bump or burn myself, I get this salve on the area as fast as possible as more often than not, it will prevent any sort of bruise or burn from forming.
Once I scalded about one-third of my hand as I was straining bone broth from the stockpot. I thought for sure my hand would be burned for weeks and possibly even scarred. I can’t even begin to describe how much it hurt.
Fortunately, I put a generous amount of this comfrey salve on it fast and kept reapplying until the pain subsided (which took a while). Would you believe, the skin never turned that beet red/purple color that usually indicates a bad burn. What’s more, the skin never even peeled.
Unfortunately, my herbalist friend is no longer making her homemade creations, so I’ve had to learn to make this comfrey salve myself. Fortunately, she generously shared her recipe with me so I can make and continue to use it. This turned out to be a good thing, as it is super easy to do even if you have little to no experience using herbs medicinally.
Why Comfrey for a Salve?
Used for millennia to help heal burns, sprains, bruises, and even slight bone fractures, comfrey contains allantoin which is thought to speed up the production of new cells. It’s also known as knitbone. Even its Latin name, symphytum, is derived from the Greek, “symphis”, meaning growing together of bones, and “phyton,” meaning plant.
Other Important Herbs
The healing power of comfrey to the skin and connective tissues is enhanced by five other herbs contained in this salve recipe.
- Echinacea both in its root (more potent) and leaf form is included to provide natural antibiotic properties.
- Yarrow flower also helps counter infection, stop the pain and encourage rapid healing, particularly with sunburn and kitchen burns.
- Rosemary leaf brew is an effective wash for the skin and wounds of all kinds. It also acts as a natural preservative for the salve.
- Plantain leaf, when included in an ointment, helps to counter stings, stop itches, heal wounds, and relieve pain.
- Calendula flower is included because it is useful on all external skin problems and injuries but especially those that are red, tender, and oozing. This helpful herb will also help to heal burns, bruises, and sprains. Calendula decreases swelling, clears infection, speeds tissue regeneration, and prevents scarring.
Making Your Own Salve is Easy!
While you are welcome to include any other herbs you feel would be helpful in an all-purpose salve, the ones listed above are the ones I have found to be super effective. As I mentioned before, this comfrey salve is the only one we currently use in our house for anything skin related.
It also works as a mild herbal antifungal as well.
The recipe below makes about 2 cups of herbal salve. You only need to make a batch every few years. It lasts a long time! It also makes great gifts if you divide it up into small jars to give away to friends and family.
Prefer to Buy?
There isn’t anything commercial on the market that can compare to homemade. However, if you just don’t have the time to make your own comfrey salve, you can buy a couple of similar ointments on the market.
My Mother-in-Law swears by Christopher’s Complete Tissue & Bone ointment which contains a generous amount of organic comfrey. In addition, this brand of comfrey creme will produce good results.
Another excellent remedy for bug bites and bruises that costs pennies is old-fashioned Witch Hazel.
Herbal Salve Recipe with Comfrey
All purpose medicinal herbal salve containing 9 helpful herbs including comfrey for all types of skin problems including rash, kitchen burns, sunburn, bruises, insect bites, dry/chapped skin etc.
Ingredients
- 3 oz Comfrey leaf
- 3 oz Plaintain leaf
- 3 oz Calendula flower
- 3 oz White Yarrow flower
- 3 oz Rosemary leaf
- 3 oz Echinacea purpurea root
- 3 oz Echinacea purpurea leaf
- 3 oz St. John’s Wort
- 3 oz Lavender flower
- 2+ cups Extra virgin olive oil or virgin coconut oil
- 6 oz beeswax
Instructions
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Fill non-BPA lid mason jar two-thirds full of the herb mix above in roughly similar amounts. This is about 3 ounces by volume for each herb.
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Gently liquefy the oil if necessary (coconut oil liquefies at 76 °F/24 °C).
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Add the oil until it fills the mason jar. Leave one inch at the top. Screw on the lid tightly.
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Keep on low heat (be very careful not to boil the oil as it needs to be hot to infuse the herbs, but never boiling) for 72 hours. As water evaporates, add more water to maintain the proper level.
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After 3 days, the oil will be darkened and ready to use. Strain out the herbs using a cheesecloth or an old white cotton shirt. The comfrey infused oil may now be used as is for a wonderful massage oil.
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To transform the oil into a salve, you need to add beeswax (get it here). Depending how much oil you have once the herbs are strained out, add 3 ounces/85 grams of grated beeswax (or beeswax pastilles) for every cup of oil. Warm the mixture together in a medium sized pot on low heat until the wax is melted. Stir gently to distribute the wax evenly. Add a drop of Vitamin E oil or wheat germ oil per 1 ounce/28 grams of oil if you desire additional natural preservative effect beyond what the rosemary provides.
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While the salve is still warm, pour into containers of choice. Salve tins work especially well.
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Let the containers sit until the oil hardens. Screw on the lids and be sure to label and date each one.
Recipe Video
More Information
How to Prepare an Herbal Infusion
Traditional Remedies for Modern Families
How to Make a Vinegar Compress for Bruises and Sprains
Bruise Easily? Here’s the Nutrient You Need
Wise Woman Herbal by Susun Weed
Sounds a LOT like the salve I’ve been making for years. I have a more precise ingredients list on my website: homemadehousewife.blogspot.com/2013/05/homemade-healing-salve.html
Yes, very similar. Melissa, why did you use half the calendula and yarrow as compared with the plantain and comfrey? Did you find this more effective?
Hi Sarah- Yarrow and Calendula serve the same purpose- they both have anti-inflammatory properties. I guess I just felt it was a little overkill to put so much of both herbs in the formulation 🙂 I am just a novice herbalist, but my salve works wonders for all the nicks and scratches my family seems to accumulate! Not sure if more of these herbs would be more effective, but it definitely won’t hurt.
Could this potentially be used for a diaper rash?
My little one gets stubborn rashes and I was wondering if comfrey salve could help heal or at least soothe him.
By the time my herbalist had introduced me to this recipe, my kids were no longer babies so I don’t know for sure. I think it is worth a shot though. It certainly wouldn’t hurt.
I used my homemade “Boo Boo Cream” on diaper rash when my children were babies. It is similar to this salve: comfrey cold infused coconut oil, plantain cold infused olive oil, beeswax, and lavender essential oil. It worked great.
Thanks for this! I would love to try it!
Another option for a ready made salve is Eden Salve from Bulk Herb Store. We’ve used it for years and love it. bulkherbstore.com/Eden-Salve
How much of each herb do you use?
I wish you were selling this stuff!! Between kombuchas and cheeses and kefirs and so on – there’s just no time!! 🙂 Would you apply it to a bleeding scrape/ cut? or would you wait till it dried up a bit?
I would not apply this to a bleeding cut or scrape. Disinfect as you normally would and once it has scabbed over, this salve would help with the healing and minimizing or preventing scarring.
Could this be done in a crockpot? I’d rather not leave the stove on overnight.
Yes, the recipe includes a crockpot as an option.
I have found comfrey root to be even more effective, it probably contains more allantoin than leaves do. I usually make the salve in the fall, when the energy of the plant is concentrated in the roots.
Callophyllum inophyllum is also a good vegetable oil, which also helps with the healing of scars. I am not sure however, if that oil will keep its properties when heated for such a long time. I use a combination of coconut oil or Shea butter (which I merely allow to melt) with callophyllum ( I add it when incorporating the comfrey and other plants). The mixture is then left to infuse for 12 to 24 hours, I then gently heat it to remove the roots and leaves before adding the beeswax.
Thanks for all your great posts Sarah!
Would it be just as effective to turn it off at night and just keep going during the day until I get to the total time? I’m too nervous to leave anything on at night. Thank you.
Can you use a crockpot? I wouldn’t turn it off at night.
What do you think about adding Arnica to this recipe? I have found it very helpful for healing.
I just looked it up and read it is not recommended for broken skin, so it would not be a good addition to an all-purpose salve.
Sarah I’m looking for my 6 month old to help with eczema. Would this help??
Hi Laura, I do think the salve would help, but haven’t used it for this specific purpose in our family, so can’t be 100% sure. It wouldn’t hurt to try it, though. Of course, the salve can be used for so many other things, if you made it and it didn’t work so well for eczema, it would still be so very useful.
Remember though that eczema should ideally be healed from within by rebalancing the gut with dietary and probiotic assistance. Soothing creams can definitely be a help along the way though as this can sometimes be a lengthy process. Here are some other articles on eczema that you might find helpful: https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/doctor-approved-remedies-for-eczema-treatment/
https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/tips-for-eczema-relief-while-healing-from-within/
https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/eczema-treatment-avoid-drug-based-domino-effect/
Thank you Sarah! I’ll check out the resources. I know it’s a gut health issue that needs to be healed. Just also looking for a soothing ointment while we figure it all out.
I make a salve similar to this one, which includes comfrey cold infused coconut oil, plantain cold infused olive oil, beeswax, and lavender essential oil. It really helps the psoriasis on my husband’s fingers. I know it’s not the same as eczema, but I think it could really help with that too.