Before now i bet you thought Urine was useless. Well, I used to think so too. But it turns out that the yellow liquid we’ve been flushing down the toilet actually does serve some purposes.
Here are 6 Weird But Ingenious Uses Of Urine.
1. Source of medications
Urine contains proteins and other substances that serves as useful ingredients in many drugs (e.g., Ureacin, Urecholine, Urowave).
Oral intake of freshly voided morning urine has been recommended for many diseases such as viral or bacterial infections.
Also, Urine from postmenopausal women is rich in gonadotropins that can yield follicle stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone for fertility therapy. One such commercial product is Pergonal.
Urine from pregnant women contains enough protein hormones for commercial extraction and purification to produce medication. Pregnant mare urine is the source of estrogens, namely
Premarin. Urine also contains antibodies, which can be used in diagnostic antibody tests for a range of pathogens, including HIV-1.
2. Fertilizer
When diluted with water (Undiluted urine can chemically burn the leaves or roots of some plants), urine can be applied directly to soil as a fertilizer. This is due to the large quantities of nitrogen (mostly as urea), as well as reasonable quantities of dissolved potassium that is present in Urine.
**The fertilization effect of urine has been found to be comparable to that of commercial nitrogen fertilizers.
3. Cleaning
Because urea in urine breaks down into ammonia, urine has been used for the cleaning properties of the ammonia therein. In pre-industrial times aged urine was used as a cleaning fluid.
It was also used for whitening teeth in Ancient Rome.
4. Survival uses
The US Army Field Manual advises
against drinking urine for survival but adviced that in hot weather survival situations where other sources of water are not available, soaking a cloth in urine and putting it on the head can help cool the body.
Also during World War I the Germans experimented with numerous poisonous gases for use during war. After the first German chlorine gas attacks, Allied troops were supplied with masks of cotton pads that had been soaked in urine. It was believed that the ammonia in the pad neutralized the chlorine. These pads were held over the face until the soldiers could escape from the poisonous fumes.
5. Tie and dye
Nowadays Tye-dye kits use special made chemicals.. But in the past, Urine was (its still used) used as a mordant to help prepare textiles, especially wool, for dyeing. In the Scottish Highlands and Hebrides, the process of ” waulking” woven wool is preceded by soaking in urine, preferably that of children.
6. Treatment of Arthritis
Image source: Studytub.com
According to Chinese tradition, Eggs boiled in urine have health benefits ranging from treating arthritis to preventing heat stroke. The trick, though, is that you have to use the urine of young virgin boys, preferably under the age of ten.
Source: Wikipedia
