Download "This Plant Replaces All Fertilizer FOREVER. Why Did the FDA Ban It?"

In the 1960s, British trials documented something impossible: 100 tons per acre, year after year, from a plant that decomposes in 48 hours and requires zero inputs. Then in 2001, it vanished from every garden center in America. This is the story of comfrey, the biological fertilizer factory that threatened a $230 billion industry, and the systematic campaign to erase it from public memory. 🌿 WHAT IS COMFREY? Symphytum officinale, commonly called comfrey or "knitbone," is a perennial plant that was standard in Victorian gardens and medieval medicine. For 2,000 years, Europeans used it for bone healing and wound treatment, but its true power lies underground. 📊 THE LABORATORY PROOF Fresh comfrey leaves deliver 7.09% potassium, 4-5X higher than farmyard manure (which maxes at 1.5%). The plant also contains: - 2-3% nitrogen - 0.5-1% phosphorus - 26% protein when dried - Trace minerals: calcium, magnesium, iron, silicon, boron - Decomposition rate: 48 hours (vs weeks for other green manures) - Yield: 100 tons fresh biomass per acre annually - Production cycle: 20+ years from single planting - Root depth: 6-10 feet (mines subsoil nutrients) ⚠️ THE 2001 FDA CONFUSION July 6, 2001: FDA warned against comfrey supplements for internal use due to pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) causing liver toxicity when swallowed in large amounts. The ban targeted: pills, teas, capsules, products on open wounds NOT banned: External garden use as mulch/fertilizer But headlines said "toxic" without distinction. Garden centers stopped stocking entirely. Public assumed entire plant dangerous. Reality: Soil microbes break down PAs rapidly; no evidence of harm from mulch use. Result: Vanished from mainstream gardening within 5 years despite no ban on garden use. 🌱 HOW TO USE COMFREY - Cut at 2 feet tall (before flowering) - Regrows in 4 weeks - 5 harvests per season = 100 tons/acre/year Uses: - Mulch (breaks down in 48 hours) - Comfrey tea (dilute 10:1, outperforms commercial fertilizers) - Compost activator (heats pile 10-15°F within hours) 📚 SOURCES: - Dioscorides, P. (c. 90 AD). De Materia Medica. Greek medical text documenting Symphytum officinale for bone healing. - Pliny the Elder (77 AD). Naturalis Historia. Roman documentation of comfrey adhesive properties. - Mills, C.B. (1961). First in Lawns: O.M. Scott & Sons. Newcomen Society of England. Company history and product development. - Hills, L.D. (1976). Comfrey: Past, Present and Future. Faber and Faber. Original research on Bocking 14 development and nutrient analysis. - Hills, L.D. (1953). Russian Comfrey. Faber and Faber. Documentation of Henry Doubleday's work and hybrid discovery. - Smil, V. (2004). Enriching the Earth: Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, and the Transformation of World Food Production. MIT Press. - Haber, F. & Le Rossignol, R. (1909). Über die Darstellung des Ammoniaks aus Stickstoff und Wasserstoff. Zeitschrift für Elektrochemie. - IMARC Group (2024). Global Fertilizer Market Report 2024-2034. Market size and growth projections. - U.S. FDA (2001). Letter to Dietary Supplement Manufacturers Regarding Comfrey-Containing Products. July 6, 2001 regulatory warning. - Culpeper, N. (1653). The Complete Herbal. Historical medicinal uses of comfrey. - Garden Organic (formerly HDRA). Archives of Lawrence Hills' research and breeding programs 1954-1986. - Troyer, J.R. (2001). In the beginning: The multiple discovery of the first hormone herbicides. Weed Science, 49(2), 290-297.