Also in British Columbia, Canada, comfrey plays an important ethnoveterinary role used against abscesses, wound and injuries, diarrhoea and scours, udder oedema and ketosis (Lans et al. officinale is still amongst the five most frequently documented species in ethnoveterinary contemporary knowledge of farmers in pre-alpine and alpine regions of two Swiss cantons mostly used against injuries of the musculosceletal system and-together with Arnica montana L.-against mastitis (Stucki et al. Today, multiple randomized clinical trials have demonstrated the positive effects of topical comfrey treatment against pain, inflammation and swelling of muscles and joints in degenerative arthritis, acute myalgia, and sprains, contusions and strains after accidents (Staiger 2012).

officinale L., Russian comfrey), are widely used in the Austrian traditional medicine internally or externally for various disorders (musculosceletal and gastrointestinal disorders, rheumatism and gout) (Vogl et al. (true comfrey) and S. × uplandicum Nyman ( S. The Euro-Siberian and Mediterranean genus Symphytum (comfrey, Boraginaceae) comprises 40 perennial species (Hacıoğlu 2011) of which two taxa, S. A subset of the samples was analysed in a second year again where rosmarinic acid and allantoin showed a medium stability, while globoidnan A was completely unstable.

Also linked to a certain genetic cluster was a low content of PA, which could become a valuable gene pool for minimizing PA content by breeding. Rosmarinic acid was not linked to any of the clusters, while one cluster was distinctively different for some compounds, amongst them allantoin and globoidnan A. The plants were grouped into six distinct genetic clusters. Besides the two beneficial compounds, further 13 polyphenols and 10 purine derivatives were determined. In parallel, the plants were analysed for the polyphenol rosmarinic acid, the purine derivative allantoin, and the toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids. officinale and 5 hybrid plants of S. × uplandicum were analysed with 34 SNP markers by KASP (Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR), developed from a next generation sequencing approach of three different individuals of S. To improve further breeding and study the genetic relationships of a comfrey collection, a sample set of 219 S. rosmarinic acid and allantoin) comfrey forms also toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PA). Besides plant secondary compounds associated with beneficial activities (e.g. officinale L., Russian comfrey) are used externally for the treatment of pain, inflammation and swelling of muscles and joints in degenerative arthritis, in acute myalgia, sprains, contusions and strains after accidents. (true comfrey) and S. × uplandicum Nyman (a hybrid between S.

Comfrey symphytum officinale