Witnessed by: Ayurveda · Unani
Cow ghee (Bos taurus), of the Bovidae (Mammalia) family. The cow, kept for milk; the drug is the fat of her milk, churned out and clarified by heat; native range: wherever the cow is kept; made in the household and the dairy across South Asia and the Middle East. Globally recognized as go ghṛta, sarpi, havi in Sanskrit, ghee, gau ghrit in Hindi, raughan-e-gao, raughan zard in Arabic, and ghee, clarified butter in English. The part used is the clarified butterfat. A soft golden granular fat, liquid and clear amber when warm, with a nutty cooked-milk aroma; bland-sweet and richly unctuous on the tongue, leaving no sourness. Aged, it darkens and grows sharply pungent.
In this cross-tradition database, we analyze how this substance operates across world medicine systems — tracking its traditional tastes, temperatures, tissue affinities, post-digestive effects, and planetary correspondences across Ayurveda, Unani, and Western herbalism.
COW GHEE
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- cow ghee
- Scientific name
- Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758
- Family
- Bovidae (Mammalia)
Form
- Part used
- the clarified butterfat
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- Ayurveda
- sweet (madhura)
- Unani
- oily (dasim, bland and unctuous)
Temperature
- Ayurveda
- cooling (sita virya) — the one fat the classics call cooling, though it kindles the digestive fire
- Unani
- hot & moist (1st degree)
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- Unani
- brain · heart · intestines
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- Ayurveda
- rasayana, medhya (sharpens the mind), vrshya, chakshushya (benefits the eyes), balya, ojovardhaka, vranaropana (heals wounds), deepana without provoking pitta, and yogavahi — it carries the virtue of what is cooked in it
- Unani
- mulaiyin (emollient and gently laxative), muqawwi-e-badan (general tonic), muqawwi-e-dimagh (brain tonic), muhallil-e-waram (resolves swellings), mundamil-e-qurooh (heals ulcers), daf-e-sumoom (antidote to poisons)
Cautions
- Contraindications
- ama and indigestion, kapha disorders, obesity, and states of heavy medas; caution where lipids are already high
- Toxicity
- low; the burden is quantitative — it is a fat, and dosed as one
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