Witnessed by: TCM · Ayurveda · Unani
Cow milk (Bos taurus), of the Bovidae (Mammalia) family. The cow, kept for her milk; the drug is the milk itself; native range: wherever the cow is kept — which is to say most of the inhabited world. Globally recognized as niu ru (牛乳) in Chinese, go dugdha, go kṣīra in Sanskrit, gaay ka doodh in Hindi, sheer-e-gao, laban al-baqar in Arabic, and cow milk in English. The part used is the milk, fresh drawn. An opaque white fluid, plainly sweet, faintly animal in smell, unctuous on the tongue and leaving a coating; it throws a cream on standing and turns sour of itself.
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 MILK
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- cow milk
- Scientific name
- Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758
- Family
- Bovidae (Mammalia)
Form
- Part used
- the milk, fresh drawn
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- TCM
- sweet (甘)
- Ayurveda
- sweet (madhura)
- Unani
- sweet (with a faint unctuousness)
Temperature
- TCM
- cool (微寒 wei han, slightly cold) in the Bencao Gangmu; neutral (平) in later listings
- Ayurveda
- cooling (sita virya)
- Unani
- temperate (motadil), inclining moist
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- TCM
- Heart · Lung · Stomach
- Unani
- stomach · brain · intestines
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- TCM
- tonifies deficiency, benefits the Lung and Stomach, generates fluids, and moistens the intestines
- Ayurveda
- jivaniya (life-giving), rasayana, balya, vrshya, ojovardhaka, stanya-janana, brmhana (builds the body), and santarpana
- Unani
- muqawwi-e-badan (general tonic), murattib (moistener), muqawwi-e-dimagh (brain tonic), mulaiyin (gently laxative), mughalliz-e-mani, mufarrih (gladdens the heart)
Cautions
- Contraindications
- ama and indigestion, kapha disorders and heavy phlegm, fever with ama, oedema, and diarrhoea from weak digestion; the classics count milk taken with fish, with sour fruit or with salt a viruddha (incompatible) combination
- Toxicity
- low; the modern qualification is lactose intolerance and milk-protein allergy, and the plain fact that raw unboiled milk is a vector of infection
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