Camel4Life International Group
The camel4life international is a group of camelists (scientists, academics, farmers, activists, businessmen, students, farmers, etc) advocating camel aspects, especially milk. We are a major think tank of the camelids’ world. From time to time we have serious and hot debates about the salt requirements and tolerance, camel milk, and its therapeutic potential, camel’s role in ecosystem management, etc. But now we have a rather very serious, hot, and complicated issue, the CAMEL URINE.
How the debate started?
in response to Christina Adams, Fatima Ramadan from Egypt responded as “This is excellent, there is the research we are working on to extract nanoparticles from camel urine to treat cancer in rats“Then the debate started and turned into a hot argument with each moment of time.
An open invitation to take part in debate online
I invite you to take part in the discussion. I wish we give our feedback and input. We should not go into a personal hot argument but discuss the scientific findings, traditional knowledge, and cultural and religious philosophies. Please give your feedback in the comments box below. Prof. Dr. Abdul Raziq Kakar
https://camel4all.info/index.php/blog/: HOT DEBATE – IS CAMEL URINE THERAPEUTIC?
Good afternoon Doctor. Interesting subject and not one that ever raised its head in either Mauritania, Mali or Niger. It (camel urine) was taken seriously when watering stock with regards the health of the animals, colour and smell. I suppose here in the UK it was used to process animals skins bit not as as far as I am aware in my region of experience. I will of course keep an eye out for upcoming comments and of course as ever, more research every time I receive one of your notifications. Take care Doctor.
Thanks for your response and feedback. I always found your feedback very informative and useful. Please keep your fingers cross.
I just want to reconfirm my understanding as; to if the urine was used for dying/processing of raw skin? if yes, which animal urine and when was that time (almost how long before)? I would certainly like to have your answer.
Best regards and thanks very much once again.
Cows urine in the UK was used from medieval times to perhaps circa 1950. Chemical agents had been used earlier, chromium being one which has been found to be harmful to humans. In Marrakesh and Fez they continue to use cows urine and pigeon droppings. The stench is rather pungent. I passed through Morocco on my way from and to France on occasion, I do not like to stop too long. I visited Tan Tan on four occasions in The Western Sahara looking for stolen stock from Mauritania where the Saharawi as well as the Maure used vegetable tanning processes. Generally the leather is of a low quality. I used goatskin (guerba) as a water sack. The skin was sown and washed with water until the water ran clear, leaving some fat on the inside. Though it never tasted of it.
Thanks very much once again. You are really great inspiration for us. I would love if you can share your story and experience with the nomads. I shall publish on the website. Best regards
Very Informative content on therapeutic Thank you for the article!
Hi Dr. Raziq,
It would be good if we could have Christina’s original comments or questions. In the blog so far I can only see 5 comments which are more about the use of urine in tanning leather which is interesting, but not so much in line with about urine as a medecine. The other reply (Sharon) talk about therapeutic but just takes us to the medicinal use of marijuana – not sure what the link to the medicinal links to urine are in that – or is it just someone trying to advertise their product.
Lastly it would be good if Fatima from Egypt can tell us a bit more about their experiment – what is the hypothesis, the methodology, sample sizes etc, and when results may be found.
In summary, so far we need to find some existing research – can someone do a quick google search on see what papers pop up and put links top them on this blog for the rest of us to read and then discuss what we think of the papers.
Here in East Africa, some people who keep camels believe in the medicinal value of urine, others use it to wash with when there is no water. Some cattle keepers in South Sudan use cows urine for the same purpose. As we know, some medicines are effective simply because some people have a belief in them, a placebo effect, whether there are any real medical evidence or not, it has a psychological benefit perhaps.
It will be an interesting debate, but so far I have not seen it on the link provided. Thanks.
Thanks very much to have your response/feedback as your status is very important in the camel’s world. You are a practical camel keeper in the horn of Africa and have a very strong camel background with a Ph.D. dissertation on camel production. As you know that we had a hard debate in the group Camel4Life international WhatsApp which is very difficult to compile. In the group as well as on the website, I try my best to not promote any product but to talk about the camel products and different aspects in a general way.
The reason for writing an article on the website was to grab the attention of the people who are interested in the camels’ thing and to have a debate and opinion sharing. Thanks for your opinion, making this debate more diversified and enriching our understanding and knowledge. Please share your point of view about the role of camel urine in the treatment of human ailments as some people claim. Personally, I will never recommend consuming camel urine as it is rejected by the physiology of an animal, the camel.
Best regards