CBD and Comfrey Skincare: FAQs About Catskills Comfrey
I’m allergic to wax. Do you have any ointments without wax added?
Yes, we do. Addressing this unique need has been an easy solution. Once we infuse our plant material (i.e. leaf, stem, root, flower, and/or bud) into our menstruum of MCT and Greek olive oil, the infused oil is fully potent with the full array of medicinal benefits associated with that particular formulation. It is 100% liquid and contains no wax. This liquid oil is what you’ll find when you shop as our Waxless Option.
The waxless infused oil can be applied directly with a dropper bottle, a fine-mist sprayer, a one-inch brush, or cotton rounds. For your convenience, these inexpensive accessories can be purchased at the bottom of the waxless page.
How do you create your ointments?
All of our ointments are created via the infusion process, which is a centuries-old technique of effectively and thoroughly extracting the medicinal benefits of organic material and transferring it to the MCT and Greek olive oil.
When you steep a tea bag, you are doing an infusion, i.e. transferring the taste and benefit of the tea leaves to the hot water. We simply infuse our organic material at a slightly elevated temperature over an elongated duration.
We do not use any essential oils as this is an inferior method for extracting the full-spectrum array of medicinal benefits associated with the plant material. This short, readable article, The Difference Between Infused Oils Vs. Essential Oils, expands on why we believe the infusion process is the superior extraction method.
Essentially, the infusion process provides everything whereas essential oils may provide a ‘clipped’ set of benefits due to the technical process and limiting temperatures involved.
What does ‘comfrey-based’ mean?
All our ointments contain the exact same concentration of comfrey as our Original Ointment. To ensure this consistent concentration, we first infuse the dried comfrey into our menstruum of MCT and Greek olive oil. We refer to this initial infusion as the ‘comfrey base’ - and is the Original Ointment if the wax is added.
In a subsequent step, we then infuse additional organic material into the actual ‘comfrey base’ to create a new formulation. For example, we infused calendula and arnica flowers into our ‘comfrey base’ to create our Arnica & Calendula Ointment.
With nearly 400 comfrey plants in the ground at our farm, we put a LOT of comfrey into all our ointments.
Comfrey is an anti-inflammatory, helping reduce arthritic/joint pain and sore muscle discomfort. It also contains allantoin, which is a cell-proliferant. Many skin conditions require new cells to be created at the skin surface as part of the overall healing process. Allantoin assists and enhances your body’s ability to create new cells.
What are pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs)?
Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids (PAs) are toxins associated with comfrey that can accumulate in the liver and cause cancer in heavy concentrations. That being said, the PAs found in comfrey are heavily concentrated in the root - and the least amount is found in the large comfrey leaves.
We never harvest the root for use anywhere in our ointments. We only harvest the largest comfrey leaves for our infusion process, considerably reducing any PA content in our ointments. Furthermore, we grow the uplandicum strain which, purportedly, contains the least amount of PAs of the common comfrey varieties.
Why is your ointment green?
We like to say we’re ‘clean and green’. The ‘clean’ aspect speaks to our fully organic growth of comfrey and other plants. We use only aged cow-manure compost as our sole fertilizer, supplementing the incredibly rich Catskills sun, soil, and water.
Herbs thrive in the Catskills which is the last region in the United States ground down by glaciers, through the Hudson River Valley. We feel this has created an extremely rich, fertile growing environment, conducive to potent plants ideal for increasing medicinal content.
The ‘green’ has a double meaning:
Our growing practices are, by common usage, ‘green’
The distinctive green color of our ointments is due to the heavy concentration of comfrey in the large, deep green leaves involved in the infusion process.
How can I know your ointments contain any medicinal value at all?
The old adage, “know your jeweler” is applicable here. Documenting what we do has proven difficult and expensive. There is no known test for determining our allantoin content, at least, one that we can find.
So, to create our formulations, we thoroughly research the literature for responsible sources that discuss the benefits of the specific herbs, including the NIH, well-regarded and published herbalists, universities, and hospitals. Our favorite is the National Institute of Health (NIH) whose articles are thorough, responsible, and authoritative.
That being said, our business cannot succeed without repeat business — and we get a lot of re-orders. This is a direct indicator that our ointments provide benefit and value and our customers continue to return for more. This is crucial to our success — we want you to heal. It’s both gratifying and crucial to maintaining a positive, trusted relationship with our clients.
What are the strains of the medicinal plants you grow?
Comfrey Uplandicum
The comfrey strain we grow is comfrey uplandicum, which displays a distinctive, small blue inverted-cup flower when it blooms. We do not repeat NOT use the comfrey root in any aspect of our production process; rather we specifically harvest the larger leaves to infuse. Comfrey can contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) which can lead to toxicity in the liver. The comfrey root contains the highest concentration of PAs while the least amount is found in the larger leaves. The uplandicum strain is known to have the lowest concentration of PAs among the various comfrey strains.
We fully infuse dried comfrey leaves into our carrier oils of fractionated coconut oil, also known as MCT oil, and Greek olive oil. We do not employ comfrey oil extracts whatsoever.
Calendula Erfurter
This calendula Erfurter variety is considered to have especially high medicinal value. Picking the large blooms of these brilliant yellow and orange flowers can be a Zen meditation in itself.
Arnica Chamissonis
Arnica chamissonis is medicinally equivalent to arnica montana. Arnica is a perennial plant in that it grows on its own every year and does not require re-planting each year. Our arnica is particularly vigorous and is extremely well-established.
Chili Pepper - Carolina Reaper
The Carolina Reaper chili pepper has the highest rating on the Scoville chart, in excess of 2,200,000 units. We obtain dried chili pepper pods and infuse these directly into our ointments.
Hemp - High Falls #1
Our CBD-dominant hemp is a proprietary strain developed for medicinal purposes by High Falls Extracts, located in High Falls NY. Our supply of full-spectrum CBD was grown in our upper pasture … we know where our CBD comes from.
Who provides your CBD? (Hint: We Do!)
We know where our CBD comes from — our upper pasture.
This effort to ‘grow our own’ is part of our holistic approach to creating our comfrey-based ointments, along with comfrey, arnica, and calendula. By doing our own ‘grow’, we can vouch for the quality and source. Note that we employ the full-spectrum phyto-cannabinoids of the hemp plant, encouraging the ‘entourage effect’ to maximize the palliative benefit of the CBD’s medicinal benefits.
CBD-Dominant Hemp Grown in Our Upper Pasture — Summer 2019.
Do you have a COA on your CBD Ointment?
We commission independent COA (Certificate of Analysis) on our CBD and CBD Premium ointments, per batch. Because we infuse the dried hemp bud directly into our carrier oils (of fractionated coconut oil and Greek olive oil), concentrations can vary from batch to batch. The final ointments we ship always exceed the concentration noted on the label.
Our CBD ‘flavor’ contains 200mg of full-spectrum CBD per ounce of ointment, or 400mg CBD in our 2oz jar; similarly, our CBD Premium ointment contains 500mg of full-spectrum CBD in each ounce or 1000mg CBD in the 2oz jar. This level of concentration is one of the highest in the industry. And we provide additional healing herbs to enhance the benefits.
Two representative COAs:
CBD ointment (label = 200mg CBD per oz of ointment) - Batch CB20200324
CBD Premium ointment (label = 500mg CBD per oz of ointment) - Batch PR20200316v2
Batch CB20200324 - Essentially, the COA shows a 9,58mg CBD content per gram of our coconut and Greek olive carrier oils. There are 28.3g in an oz; therefore, 1oz of our CBD ointment contains (28.3g/oz x 9.58mg =) 271mg CBD/oz of ointment, or 542mg CBD in each 2oz jar. Our product label affirms the minimum CBD content is 400mg per 2oz jar. Note that we exceed this 400mg ‘must meet’ requirement.
Batch PR20200316v2 - The COA shows a concentration of 37.41mg/g of ointment or 1,060mg/oz of ointment; therefore, in this particular batch, a 2oz jar of CBD Premium (label states 1,000mg full-spectrum CBD) contains approximately 2,120mg of CBD, well over twice the stated concentration.
A relevant COA is included with each jar we ship that contains CBD.
How fresh is Catskills Comfrey?
We pour regularly, every two to four weeks. You can expect the ointment to ‘last’ for a year. When harvesting comfrey on our farm, we dry it, crush it, and store it in airtight containers within 48 hours of harvest.
Our carrier oils are fractionated coconut oil and Greek olive oil. This particular type of coconut oil is ideal for topical ointments and is extremely stable. The shelf life of our ointment, in actuality, is more than one year - and can be extended by storing the ointment in a cool, dark area. We are scrupulous about preventing water, the main cause of mold, from potentially tainting our ointments.
How much Catskills Comfrey should I use? How frequently?
The actual amount used depends on your condition…
For trigger finger, it’s often more convenient and effective to spread it over your entire hand vs. a single finger. The base oils are excellent moisturizers.
For a bee sting, ‘a little dab will do ya’.
Sore muscles may require liberal amounts as more body mass is involved.
For rashes, lightly cover the affected area. Increase as needed.
For acne, cold sores, and cracked skin, use until resolved.
Some applications, i.e., bee stings, are ephemeral, short events of usage; trigger finger may be an ongoing effort to diminish the actual symptoms. Our ointment, all of which involve comfrey, cannot cure trigger finger; it can only mitigate the symptoms.
An ounce (our smallest Catskills Comfey jar) lasts about one month under normal, daily usage.
I’ve heard comfrey may affect the liver, why is that?
Comfrey contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) which are principally found in the root. Our ointments do not use the root as our allantoin source whatsoever. Our ointments use the largest leaves - and these contain the least PAs; furthermore, dried comfrey contains negligible PAs. Comfrey is widely used in topical applications. There is no known FDA warning against the topical application of comfrey. We do not recommend oral ingestion of comfrey and our products.
How do I get the Chili Pepper ointment out of my eye?
Milk. And, we sympathize with you. Our Chili Pepper ointment is hot! We know, too, by experience. We infuse the Carolina Reaper chili pepper, the world’s hottest pepper, in our process. There is approximately one dried pod per ounce of ointment.
A little bit of this ointment, if spread to the eye (or any other orifice), can be extremely uncomfortable - and even painful. If using this ointment for massage or applying warmth to sore muscles, wash your hands thoroughly immediately.
If spread to the eye, do not use water to rinse; this will only spread the discomfort. Rather, use milk. It is soothing and dampens the stinging effect.
Is Catskills Comfrey organic?
They are — but not the official ‘USDA Organic’; we are just too small of a business. We use no pesticides or chemicals in the growth of our comfrey, arnica, and calendula. The only fertilizer for the comfrey is a shovelful of aged horse manure on each plant after it is fully harvested, about three times per season (May through September). Any soil amendments we add to the arnica and calendula plants are organic.
The coconut oil we use is organic, extra-virgin, and cold-pressed. The Greek olive oil is extra-virgin, and cold-pressed. The beeswax is unscented and organic.
May I get a refund?
If you are not satisfied with your Catskills Comfrey product, yes, you may request (and probably) receive a refund. We ask that you be mindful that ‘everybody is different’ when judging the efficacy of our products.
If your purchase arrives broken, we will issue you a replacement at no cost. Breakage is uncommon as we ship in well-padded envelopes.
How is my order shipped & when will it be delivered?
We ship most orders via USPS 1st Class Mail. Once we have received a Tracking ID from the Post Office, you are advised, along with an online URL where you can track your package.
In general, if an order is received by 2pm, we ship that day; otherwise, the order is mailed the day after the order is received. Packages arrive in 2-3 days.
I would like to sell Catskills Comfrey in my store. Do you wholesale?
If you have a retail store and wish to carry our products, please contact us with your state-issued resale certificate and website address. We will advise you promptly as to whether we can include you in our growing network of health and quality-oriented stores displaying Catskills Comfrey on their shelves.
Disclaimer
This information has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Any advice found here should NOT supersede the advice and services of a licensed medical practitioner; nor should the advice found here be used in any way to alleviate any specific disease or its prevention. You are fully responsible for your own health and any purchase of Catskills Comfrey does not relieve you of that responsibility. By purchasing, you agree to hold the seller, Catskills Comfrey, free of any liability resulting from this purchase; nor does Catskills Comfrey assume any responsibility for any untoward or adverse reaction from its product.