#902 Risks of using animal products

ABBREVIATIONS used in this blog: NIM - Native Indian Medicine. The Government of India, the State Governments, and the Elite of the Society call it 'Ayurveda' (The knowledge (science?) of longevity).

Herbal Medicine (IHM Indian Herbal Medicine). India have a branch in 'AyurvEda' called 'vrukshAyurvEda' (The science of longevity of plants).

Ayurveda allows use of the three types of products: 1. plants 2. animals 3. lacto (milk products such as clarified butter, butter, milk, curd (yoghurt).

The folk medicine and tribal medicine have also traditionally used all the three types of products.

I, feel that using animal products carries with it the risks of the animal diseases - the general type relating to the class of animals (e.g. goats, sheep, etc.). This applies to milk products also. Cow's milk and clarified butter can also come with this shortcomings.

Not that plants do not suffer from diseases. Seeds and leaves may carry eggs and larvae of insects. Cleaning leaves, flowers, bark, seeds and fruits can , to some extent, alleviate the problem. Howsoever, intensely and meticulously we clean, wash and sterilise this risk of contamination and new infections from animal products, may persist.

These observations, I feel can apply even to the modern western medicine. For example, animal liver extracts and liver oils, until they are refined and reduced to a state of absolute inorganic chemical element or compound, may suffer from the presence of remnants of animal diseases. An exception to this alert against use of animal products can probably be extended to milk, butter and clarified butter.

The use of animal products as medicines is scattered all over the world. For example, the use of sparrow extract (vUra picukala lEhyam) as aphrodisiac is found in the folk medicine of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Chattisgadh tribals. I thought that this practice was geographical and peculiar to India and felt that it might have, apart from the use of chemical pesticides, contributed to the disappearance of common-sparrows from our homes. But this is not the case. Ancient Greeks seem to have used sparrow brains as aphrodisiacs. I do not mean to say that this practice spread from Greece to India or vice versa. These two practices might have developed independently.