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| View of two camels seen in the distance at Al Areesh Desert Camp, Wahiba Sands, Oman. The camels were available for rides. |
Camel urine - which the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) is said to have championed as a cure for illness - may sound pretty far-fetched as medicine, but it does have some unusual medical effects.
While camels have been studied for decades, research before 2010 seems largely to have been on their legendary ability to survive for periods without food and water, followed by how they react to various drugs. The earliest study on the effects of camel urine dates back to 1996, which was compared to the chemotherapy drug cyclophosphamide. Camel urine was found to be as effective as cyclophosphamide in killing cancer cells in the bone marrow, but much safer. Cyclophosphamide can also cause cell mutations which lead to cancer, whereas camel urine did not have such an effect.
A 2010 study, published January 2011 in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology, applied camel urine to cells to which a powerful cancer-causing chemical had been applied. The researchers found that camel urine effectively prevented cancer from occurring, whereas cow urine had no effect. Virgin camel urine was more effective than that from pregnant and lactating camels.
A 2011 study is one of the earliest to systematically compare camel urine against cow urine and human urine on platelets, which help blood to clot. The researchers found that while human and cow urine did nothing to platelets in human blood, camel urine inhibited platelet activity. Researchers further established that urine from pregnant and lactating camels is even more effective than urine from virgin camels. Substances that prevent platelet activity may help the treatment of heart disease, as blood that does not clot easily ensures fewer clots that cause heart problems.
A 2012 study analysed camel urine and found that it contained components unique to camels, further suggesting that it might have antimicrobial properties. Another 2012 study, published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology went further, testing camel urine against various cancers and concluding that it is effective against many cancers in vitro, including breast cancer, while leaving normal cells unaffected. Another 2016 study on breast cancer cells in Integrative Cancer Therapies noted that camel urine is effective against breast cancer. The more camel urine was used, the smaller the breast tumour became.
Contact with camels, including the use of camel urine for medicinal purposes has however been implicated in the spread of Middle East Respitatory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-Cov).