Comfrey(Symphytum officinale L.). a Anti-inflammatory Herbal Medicine

By Kyle J. Norton


Inflammation is the natural response of the immune system macrophages, the first line of defense in stimulating the production of inflammatory cytokines to protect our body against the infection caused by foreign microorganisms during the acute phase of body damage and injury.

Truly, the main focus of inflammation is to repair damage and injury.

Most cases of infection associated with inflammation are stopped at the acute phase. The wound or injury then is slowly recovered.

However, overexpression of inflammatory cytokines in most cases can cause improper healing with scar formation or the death of nearby cells.

The most common symptoms of acute inflammation occurred with a short period of time such as hours is pain, redness, immobility, swelling, and heat.

Conventionally, depending on the types of acute inflammation, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) may be prescribed to alleviate the pain by counteracting an enzyme that contributes to inflammation.

Any inflammation that lasts more than 3 months is considered chronic inflammation.

Chronic inflammation is the result of the immune system's inability to kill off all the microorganisms participated in the acute phase of infection, leading to the forming of autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases such as RA and diabetes.

Inflammation also can be caused by overexpression of free radicals compared to the antioxidant enzymes in the body. This result can lead to an imbalance of the ratio of the levels of free radicals and antioxidants, the major cause of oxidative stress.

The chronic inflammation statistics, by Roma Pahwa, Anand Singh, and Ishwarlal Jialal, wrote, "Chronic inflammatory diseases are the most significant cause of death in the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) ranks chronic diseases as the greatest threat to human health. The prevalence of diseases associated with chronic inflammation is anticipated to increase persistently for the next 30 years in the United States. in 2000, nearly 125 million Americans were living with chronic conditions and 61 million (21%) had more than one".

And, "In recent estimates by Rand Corporation, in 2014 nearly 60% of Americans had at least one chronic condition, 42% had more than one and 12% of adults had 5 or more chronic conditions".

Comfrey is a perennial plant in the genus of Symphytum, belonging to the family Boraginaceae, native to Europe. It has been used in herbal and traditional medicine to ease excessive bleeding or on open wounds, relief pain and swollen, treat circulation issues, reduce cholesterol, etc.

On finding a potential compound for the treatment of diseases associated with chronic diseases, researchers compared the efficacy of Symphytum officinale, commonly known as comfrey in chronic inflammation.

According to the study, 

* Topical use of comfrey, may process a strong anti analgesic and anti-inflammatory property for the treatment of diseases involved in the overexpression of pro-inflammatory activity.

* Furthermore, a hydroalcoholic extract of comfrey root impairs the development of a pro-inflammatory scenario in primary human endothelial cells in a dose-dependent manner.

* Moreover, the extracts also exhibited anti-inflammatory properties by impairing the pro-inflammatory genes interleukin-1 (IL-1) in activating the expression of pro-inflammatory markers including E-selectin, VCAM1, ICAM1, and COX-2.

* Additionally, the NF-κB, a transcription factor of central importance for the expression of these and other pro-inflammatory genes were also inhibited by the extracts through 2 different stages, including the cytokines IKK1/2 and IκBα degradation.

Taken altogether, Comfrey may be considered a remedy for the treatment of inflammatory diseases, pending to the confirmation of the larger sample size and multicenter human study.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) A Symphytum officinale Root Exutical)tract Exerts Anti-inflammatory Properties by Affecting Two Distinct Steps of NF-κB Signaling  by Jacqueline Seigner1, Marc Junker-Samek2, Alberto Plaza2, Gilda D‘Urso3, Milena Masullo3, Sonia Piacente3, Yvonne M. Holper-Schichl4*† and Rainer de Martin. (Frontier in Pharmacology)
(2) Chronic Inflammation by Roma Pahwa,  Anand Singh, and Ishwarlal Jialal. (NICB)