Use of human faeces in traditional medicine

Ttongsul (Korean: 똥술), or stool wine, is a traditional Korean pseudoscience-based medicinal preparation with an alcohol content of 9% made from faeces, usually human and preferably from children. Most likely born out of traditional Chinese medicine, in popular belief, stool wine is said to have beneficial properties for many types of ailments: it is said to be a remedy for muscle pain, burns, inflammation, epilepsy, and bone fractures. No scientific evidence exists to support any beneficial health claims of ttongsul.

Imitation of Ttongsul

Although some Western media have reported in the past that this drink is popular among the Korean population, in the present day only a very limited number of people consume it, after having suffered a decline in popularity in the past centuries, so much so that the vast majority of Korean youth have never heard of it.

History

First page of Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica (1596)

Li Shizhen, a pharmacologist of the Ming dynasty, mentioned a kind of ttongsul in his book Bencao Gangmu (or Compendium of Materia Medica):

人屎釋名人糞、大便。氣味苦，寒，無毒。主治時行大熱狂走，解諸毒，搗末，沸湯沃服之。[...] 童便氣涼撲損瘀 虛勞骨蒸熱嗽除 Men excrete faeces. The odour is bitter and unpleasant, but not toxic. For people who have gone mad, or to detoxify from any poison, reduce it to powder, boil it and then drink the broth. [...] Children's faeces have soothing properties, for falls, cuts and bruises. They also cure fatigue and coughs.

This book also mentions other healing and beneficial properties attributed to animal and human faeces as a solution to various diseases, and since Eastern medicine has drawn much of its foundation from Li Shizhen, it is therefore likely that Korean faeces wine was also derived from the Compendium.

The medical manual Donguibogam, written during the Joseon dynasty, states that human faeces can cure food poisioning due to eating raw poultry and poisonous mushrooms. During the same period, Korean singers drank water infused with human faeces to cure pharyngitis.

In Tomo Imamura's book Chōsen Fūzoku-shū, a collection of Korean customs and traditions, written during the Japanese occupation of Korea, it is stated that some people wrapped their faeces in black rags, exposing them for three days under the moonlight, to fight off fever in two days . Furthermore, human faeces were mixed with salt and applied as bandages to wounds, while they were "cooled, put in water and left in a hole, then strained and drunk some time later" to fight typhoid fever.

Although the Japanese edition of Vice magazine claimed in a 2013 article that this drink is popular as a home medicine among Koreans, not without receiving much criticism, very few people today produce and consume this drink, making it very difficult to find.

Description

The yellowish or brown liquid is very viscous and may resemble slimy sludge or vomit in consistency and color, with the possibility of solid feces residue in the form of small floating pieces. The flavor is slightly sour and largely similar to that of rice wine, while when freshly distilled it has a strong feces odour, which affects the drinker's breath. If left in the air for some time, the liquid loses this characteristic, becoming odourless. This alcoholic beverage is said to be produced in order to treat muscle pain, burns, inflammation, epilepsy, and bone fractures.

Production

A bottle of soju, a traditional Korean alcoholic beverage, also used to make ttongsul

Ttongsul can be made in two ways. The quickest way involves soaking the crushed faeces of children between the ages of 4 and 7 in water, refrigerated for 3 to 4 days, to form a paste that is then left to ferment overnight. The mixture is then strained to remove any remaining solids, and then mixed with a paste made up of 70% non-glutinous rice (which contains a lot of protein, which is important for the fermentation process) and 30% glutinous rice, which is supposedly used for its anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving properties, as well as to improve its flavour; yeast is then added to start the fermentation, which will eliminate the faecal bacteria that are dangerous to humans. This amalgam is then left to rest for a week in a clay jar, wrapped in cloth and kept at a temperature between 30 and 37 degrees Celsius, before being distilled.

The other method involves mixing soju with faeces from various animals such as chickens, dogs, other domestic animals or humans, and leaving it to ferment in a hole in the ground for several months.

See also

• Fecal microbiota transplant
• Virgin boy egg
• Traditional medicine
• Pseudoscience

External links

• Brian Ashcraft (2013). "Anger Over Korean Poo Wine Video". Kotaku.
• "Korean Poo Wine", Vice Intl. (Japan)