The Healing Powers of Cow Dung

The Healing Powers of Cow DungBy Katherine Gustafson | Thursday, March 4, 2010

In India, some people regularly drink cow's urine and smear

their floors with its dung. Can the beneficial properties of cow poop

extend to medicine?When I read the news that some people in

India are developing a set of medicines based around cow dung and

urine, I wasn't surprised.

Cows are considered sacred in Hinduism, and when I lived with a

Hindu family in Nepal, I observed the daughter-in-law, Srijaana,

ritually cleansing the kitchen floor daily by applying a layer of fresh

dung. After years of this practice, the floor was essentially a flat,

hard-packed platform of dried dung, which, I must say, had a

surprisingly smooth look and cool feel.

When I asked Srijaana whether it was clean to put cow poop on the

kitchen floor, she replied that this was the proper way to keep things

tidy and healthy. A professor I talked to said that cow dung is widely

believed to have an antibacterial property that actually sanitizes the

kitchen.

In India and Nepal, cows can do no wrong. Killing and injuring a

cow in India or Nepal inspires harsh penalties. I can't tell you the

number of times I saw traffic jams in Kathmandu caused by indulged cows

lazing in the middle of the road. Even Mahatma Gandhi will tell you:

"If someone were to ask me what the most important outward

manifestation of Hinduism was, I would suggest that it was the idea of

cow protection."

From protection, the faithful quickly move on to embracing all that

cows have to give. "Walking on fresh cow dung is very healthy," Kesari

Gumat, one of the Indian researchers working to develop the medicines

told AFP, according to Discovery News. "It kills all the germs and

bacteria and heals wounds. And dry cow dung is a great scrub to get rid

of dead skin and improve blood circulation."

Cow urine, too, is seen to have beneficial properties. A Hindu

nationalist group, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), last year

developed a cow-urine-based soft drink, "Gau Jal" or "cow water," which

they hope to market as a "healthy" alternative to soda once it receives

approval from government authorities.

Nila Parmar, an Ahmedabad housewife, told AFP that she has been

drinking cow urine every day for years because it's the only cure

that's helped her. "Trust me. I tried allopathy and homeopathy to cure

my liver disease but nothing worked," she said. "I kept changing

doctors for over two years but it's gau mutra (cow urine) that did the

trick."

The new, curative products being created in a lab in the city of

Ahmedabad in western India will be based on dung powder and distilled

urine, which are to be mixed with other ingredients to make toiletries

and medicines. The dung is dried and then subjected to high

temperatures to kill harmful bacteria while the urine is distilled to

remove impurities. While such measures may not satisfy a Western

consumer, plenty of Indians are surely looking forward to trying these

new uses of bovine bounty. Western or allopathic medicine is always saying they have to have proof, double-blind studies, and yet, has your pediatrician ever shown you proof that vaccinations work? - Pat Mckay

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