Cow urine

File:Cow's urine used as a medical treatment in India Wellcome V0041323.jpgn Ayurvedic medicine. A sick man is held over a cow's hindquarters so that the cow's urine streams onto his face.]]

File:Cow urine.JPG

Some Hindus claim that cow urine has a special significance as a medicinal drink.{{cite news |url = https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/hindu-worshippers-drink-cow-urine-3017661 |title = Pictured: A very few Indian Hindu worshippers drink COW URINE to help prevent cancer |newspaper = Daily Mirror |author=Ben Burrows |date=13 January 2014 |access-date=27 December 2015 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160106081241/http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/hindu-worshippers-drink-cow-urine-3017661 |archive-date=6 January 2016 |url-status=live }}{{cite news |url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4592608/India-makes-cola-from-cow-urine.html |title=India makes cola from cow urine |newspaper = The Daily Telegraph |author=Dean Nelson |date=11 February 2009 |access-date=27 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100409084013/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4592608/India-makes-cola-from-cow-urine.html |archive-date=9 April 2010 |url-status=live }} Among other usage, urine therapy is used for the medicinal purposes as a system of alternative medicine popularized by British naturopath John W. Armstrong in the early 20th century based on the metaphorical misreading of the Hebrew Biblical Proverb 5:15.{{cite book |last=Alter |first=Joseph |author-link=Joseph Alter |chapter=Auto-urine Therapy |title=Yoga in modern India: The body between science and philosophy |title-link=Yoga in Modern India |date=19 September 2004 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=0691118744 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o6anlz6i71oC |pages=181–210}}{{cite book |last=Armstrong |first=John W. |title=The Water Of Life: A Treatise on Urine Therapy |date=2011 |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-1446489925}} His widely sold book inspired the writing of {{transl|gu|Manav mootra}} (Gujarati: Urine therapy; 1959) by Gandhian social reformer Raojibhai Manibhai Patel, and many later works, which often reference Shivambu Kalpa, a treatise on the pharmaceutical value of urine. However, according to medical anthropologist Joseph Alter, the practices of {{transl|sa|sivambu}} (drinking one's own urine) and {{transl|sa|amaroli}} recommended by modern Indian practitioners of urine therapy are closer to the ones propounded by Armstrong than traditional ayurveda or yoga, or even the practices described in Shivambu Kalpa.

According to 1971 study by NASA, the urine is an aqueous solution of greater than 95% water, urea 9.3 g/L, chloride 1.87 g/L, sodium 1.17 g/L, potassium 0.750 g/L, creatinine 0.670 g/L and other dissolved ions, inorganic and organic compounds.David F. Putnam [https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19710023044_1971023044.pdf Composition and Concentrative Properties of Human Urine]. NASA Contractor Report. July 1971Dan Nosowitz for Popular Science. September 5, 2013 [http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-09/whats-your-pee What's in your Pee?] The purported medicinal benefits of cow urine lack scientific substantiation and rigorous empirical evidence. Claims suggesting that cow urine can cure various ailments or possess unique therapeutic properties are not supported by robust clinical trials or research.

Cow urine is also used in Myanmar and Nigeria as a folk medicine.{{cite news|title=An amazing cow's urine therapy practice in Myanmar|publisher=University of Toyama|hdl=10110/1993}}{{cite journal|title=Effects of cow urine concoction and nicotine on the nerve-muscle preparation in common African toad Bufo regularis|journal=Biomedical Research|date=2005|volume=16|issue=3|pages=205–211}} In Nigeria, a concoction of leaves of tobacco, garlic and lemon basil juice, rock salt and cow urine is used in an attempt to treat convulsions in children. This has resulted in the death of several children from respiratory depression.{{cite news|title=Don't use cow urine to treat infant epilepsy, Kwara warns mothers|url=http://www.premiumtimesng.com/regional/nnorth-east/118417-dont-use-cow-urine-to-treat-infant-epilepsy-kwara-warns-mothers.html|access-date=29 March 2015|work=Premium Times|date=2 February 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402140903/http://www.premiumtimesng.com/regional/nnorth-east/118417-dont-use-cow-urine-to-treat-infant-epilepsy-kwara-warns-mothers.html|archive-date=2 April 2015|url-status=live}}

A floor-cleaning fluid called Gaunyle is marketed by an organisation called Holy Cow Foundation.{{cite news|title=Use cow urine to clean offices, says Maneka Gandhi|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Use-cow-urine-to-clean-offices-says-Maneka-Gandhi/articleshow/46682574.cms|work=The Times of India|date=25 March 2015|access-date=6 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150330110157/http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Use-cow-urine-to-clean-offices-says-Maneka-Gandhi/articleshow/46682574.cms|archive-date=30 March 2015|url-status=live}} Maneka Gandhi, Women and Child Development Minister, has proposed that Gaunyle be used instead of Phenyl in government offices.{{cite news|title=Cow urine cleaner to replace phenyl in government offices|url=http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/cow-urine-cleaner-to-replace-phenyl-in-government-offices/1/412383.html|access-date=9 May 2015|work=India Today|date=9 January 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518094217/http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/cow-urine-cleaner-to-replace-phenyl-in-government-offices/1/412383.html|archive-date=18 May 2015|url-status=live}} In May 2015, Rajendra Singh Rathore, Medical and Health Minister of Rajasthan, inaugurated a {{INRConvert|40|m}} cow-urine refinery in Jalore.{{cite news |title=Cow-urine refinery inaugurated at Jalore |url= http://www.deccanherald.com/content/475779/cow-urine-refinery-inaugurated-jalore.html |access-date=9 May 2015|newspaper=Deccan Herald|date=3 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150508022931/http://www.deccanherald.com/content/475779/cow-urine-refinery-inaugurated-jalore.html|archive-date=8 May 2015|url-status=live}}{{cite news |title = Cow urine to be used to clean Rajasthan government hospitals |url = http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/cow-urine-rajasthan-government-hospitals-maneka-gandhi/1/433666.html |access-date=9 May 2015|work=India Today|date=5 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150508015355/http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/cow-urine-rajasthan-government-hospitals-maneka-gandhi/1/433666.html|archive-date=8 May 2015|url-status=live}} The refinery was set up by Parthvimeda Gau Pharma Pvt. Ltd. which produces a floor cleaner called Gocleaner.

File:Jeewamrut urine storage cans (4950882796).jpg

Gomutra is used as a manure for production of rice.{{cite news|title=Farmer cultivates paddy with cow urine, dung |url=http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-in-school/farmer-cultivates-paddy-with-cow-urine-dung/article4193671.ece |access-date=6 January 2015 |newspaper=The Hindu|date=13 December 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121227052550/http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-in-school/farmer-cultivates-paddy-with-cow-urine-dung/article4193671.ece|archive-date=27 December 2012|url-status=live}} Jeevamrutha is a fertilizer made from a mixture of cow urine, cow dung, jaggery, pulse flour and rhizosphere soil.{{cite book|author1=T. Satyanarayana|author2=Bhavdish Narain Johri|author3=Anil Prakash|title=Microorganisms in Sustainable Agriculture and Biotechnology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nMlHHCXVP0EC&pg=PA63|access-date=6 January 2015|date=2 January 2012|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-94-007-2214-9|page=63}}

• Cattle in religion and mythology
• Camel urine, drunk by the Muslim Prophet Mohammad as medicine
• Insect tea, from the droppings of insects used in Southeast Asia as the scientifically-unproven traditional medicine
• Kopi luwak (civet coffee), expensive coffee from the partially digested coffee cherries from the dung of civet animal
• Panchagavya, Sanskrit word for the five cow-derivatives
• Prophetic medicine, drinking of camel urine by Mohammad as medicine

• Alternative medicine
• Alternative cancer treatments
• Aqua omnium florum, use of water distilled from cow-dung as medicine in the Western World
• Cow Hugging Therapy
• Stool transplant, from one person to other as therapy in modern medicine

{{Reflist}}

• {{Commons category-inline|Cattle urine}}

{{Ayurveda}}

Category:Ayurvedic medicaments

Category:Biopesticides

Category:Organic fertilizers

Category:Urine