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INDIA, August 21, 1989: For centuries, Indian medicine has been using cow’s urine as an active ingredient in many preparations. Giving further acceptance to its efficiency is a US patent for an Indian product which contains distilled portions of cow’s urine. Chemicals in this distilled portion, popularly known as Arka, enhance the activity of antibiotics and anti-cancer agents. Developed by a team of scientists at Lucknow’s Center for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants affiliated to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, it helps reduce the dosage of the drug, its side-effects and the cost of treatment. Its main area of research has been plants of medicinal or aromatic value. The scientists studied the ancient Ayurvedic texts Shushrut Samhita and Ashtanga Samgraha. The two ancient texts provide information about various combinations of natural substances. In these texts, cow’s urine (go mutra) is mentioned as an animal secretion with therapeutic properties. The team then heard of a product which is a distillate of go mutra called Arka. Initial research on the distillate showed it could enhance the effects of a drug. The US Patent and Trade Office has granted a patent to the team for the pharmaceutical composition containing cow’s urine distillate and an antibiotic (which can be anything from an antifungal agent to an anti-cancer drug). the patent report says: “The invention relates to an absolutely novel use of cow urine distillate as activity enhancer and availability facilitator for bioactive molecules including anti-infective and anti-cancer agents.”

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