Medicinal value of Cow Urine

25/01/2013

Maneka Gandhi

(Bihar Times)Last week I went to inaugurate a little gaushala in a village outside Delhi. After the ceremony the gaushala committee head handed me a bottle of distilled cow urine. I asked him what I was supposed to do with it. Drink it, he said, it cleans the body.

I may be an animal lover but I draw the line at drinking cow urine. I took it and decided to experiment on a dog which had fleas and ticks. We rubbed the urine on and, after some time in the sun, bathed her with soap. The fleas and ticks disappeared and there was no smell at all of urine.

I am now sending it to my animal hospital to try it on other animals with parasites.

According to those who drink it, cow urine has many benefits: it improves digestion and intelligence, is useful in treating abdominal colic pain and bloating. It is useful in conditions like intestinal worms and skin diseases, obesity, anaemia. It acts as a natural detoxifier.

Apparently it is to be boiled and distilled first. There are many companies that sell distilled cow urine. But if you can get fresh urine, you can prepare the distillate like this:

Put it in a pressure cooker. At the opening on top where the whistle normally is, attach a heat resistant pipe. The other end of the pipe should open into a clean vessel kept dipped in water. Heat the urine in the pressure cooker and collect the distillate in the vessel. Do not use the pressure cooker for anything else. The distilled cow urine can be used for 1 – 2 months, if preserved in an air tight container.

Start with drinking 3-4 drops of cow urine once or twice a day. After a week, increase it to one spoon twice a day.

However there are lots of dos and don’ts: Check whether the cow is well first. Do not store raw cow urine for more than an hour. Take the cow urine for the prescribed time period only. For example, if used for indigestion, it should be take only till proper digestion is restored. Do not have it if you are very thin, emaciated, tired, suffer from fatigue, male infertility and insomnia. It is not to be given to children. Remember: cow urine therapy is not nourishing. It is detoxifying and cleansing in nature.

Many Ayurvedic medicines use cow urine as an ingredient: Shiva Gutika, Panchagavya Ghrita, Maha Panchagavya Ghrita, Gomutra Haritaki,Mandoora Vatakam

Some Ayurvedic medicines recommend cow urine to be drunk along with their medicines: Punarnavadi kashayam, Mahayograj Guggul - in the treatment of anaemia. Vyoshadi Guggulu,Khadiradi Kashayam – worm infestation, kankayan Vati - to treat abdominal lump due to kapha origin.

It is used along with Pathyadi Lepa churna, an herbal powder, to prepare a paste applied externally to relieve skin diseases such as dermatitis.

It is used in the process of making of Loha Bhasma

Our old texts like Atharva Veda, Charaka Samhita, Rajni Ghuntu, Vridhabhagabhatt, Amritasagar, Bhavaprakash, Sushruta Samhita extol the benefits of cow urine. The Cow Urine Treatment and Research Centre, Indore has conducted research and claim that that it is capable of curing diabetes, blood pressure, asthma, psoriasis, eczema, heart disease, blockage in arteries, fits, cancer, piles, prostrate, arthritis, migraine, thyroid, ulcers, acidity, constipation, gynaecological problems, ear and nose problems, varicose veins and dysmenorrhoea, ringworm, skin problems, acne. The major claim is for curing Aids – and it would be such fun if this turned out to be true. Villagers use cow urine as a disinfectant and apply it on wounds.
The analysis of cow urine shows it contains nitrogen, sulphur, ammonia, copper, phosphate, sodium, potassium, manganese, carbolic acid, iron, uric acid, urea, silicon, chlorine, magnesium, calcium salts, Vitamin A, B, C, D, E, minerals, lactose, enzymes, creatinine, Aurum hydroxide.

I may not drink it , but I certainly think it should be used as both pesticide and bio fertilizer. Hundreds of case studies have been done. In one , 11 farmers of Kali Talavadi in Maharashtra have made a club that uses cow urine as bio fertilizer on cotton, groundnut, maize, castor, chillies. They say that spraying 100-200 litres per acre increases the production of crops and of course reduces the cost of production because the urine is collected from the village cows. The farmers reported that chilli production increased by 10%.and maize by 15%

Farmers from this club bring all the animals under one shed and collect the urine at night. In two years they have collected 1.7 lakh litres of cow urine and sold 1.68 litres at Rs.2.50 / litre earning Rs.4.2 lakhs. At present 107 families are using cow urine as a bio fertilizer in the area and they say that if cow urine is used on the fields for three years , you will never need chemical fertilizers and pesticides again.

I firmly believe that the cow and the buffalo are the answer to all our agricultural issues. If the government that forced our farmers into chemical dependence would simply see the cow as our saviour out of this trap and stop letting her be killed for leather and meat export , we would get cheaper food, less cancer and a far healthier economy.