Cobra’s penis as a cure for impotence

Quirky — By ken on April 22, 2010 at 2:56 pm
Cobra restaurants are having a potentially disastrous impact on the local snake population in Bali and Indonesia.

Snakes are being killed wholesale for byproducts such as traditional medicines, meat, blood and skins, and are also dying on roads and being killed when found near human habitations.
Added to the cobra meat market is the local snake skin industry that produces belts, wallets, shoes and bags from the skins of a range of snake species.

Cobra.jpg
Cobra

Then as a cure for impotence, the cobra’s penis is soaked in arrack for a month much like a worm in a bottle of mescal.
There’s also a popular product on the market called the King Cobra penis enlargement pill, but its claimed to be 100% vegetarian with the ingredients listed as saw palmetto, Asian ginseng root and various other exotic ingredients.
The arrival of Viagra might someday help reduce the slaughter of species that are believed to cure impotence. But for most Indonesians, Viagra is too expensive to replace traditional medicine. The smallest size of Viagra tablet, 25 milligrams, sells for the equivalent of $8, while a concoction made from cobra penis is only $3.50. The minimum wage in Indonesia is about $50 a month.
Snakes are not the only unusual animals on the menu in Indonesia. In various parts of the country, bats, bear paws, sea turtle eggs, orangutan meat, crocodile and tiger penises, geckos, dried seahorses, monitor lizards, goat testicles, shark cartilage, pythons, sperm whales, rhinoceros horns and monkey brains are consumed as health remedies, impotency cures or gourmet treats.
The demand for some endangered species, including the Sumatran tiger, the one-horned Javan rhinoceros, the Malayan sun bear and the green sea turtle, has contributed to a dangerous decline in their numbers even though they are protected under Indonesian and international law.
In a nation with 300 ethnic groups scattered across 17,000 tropical islands, it is not surprising that Indonesians have a wide variety of eating habits. KFC, McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts are popular in urban areas. But on remote islands, local tribal traditions remain strong.
Much of the desire for peculiar foods is rooted in ideas of traditional medicine brought to the islands over the centuries by Chinese immigrants. Today, ethnic Chinese are among the main consumers of animal remedies.
This is a country where health care is woefully inadequate and established medical treatment can be prohibitively expensive. Some people suffering from long-term illness or impotency are desperate enough to try anything.
These beliefs did not only come from China, as in ancient Greece and Rome, cures for impotence also used parts of animal associated with potency. Snakes (since they were popularly believed to rejuvenate themselves), and the genitalia of roosters and goats were consumed. On the forehead of a newborn foal was found a growth called the hippomanes, which, reported Aristotle, was a powerful aphrodisiac.

Jakarta’s cobra cafes


Right in the heart of north Jakarta’s Chinese business district is a tiny restaurant called King Cobra Palace where owner Ono Suwarno lets you pick out your own live cobra when you arrive, and have it grilled as a satay-type kebab.

Typically, he cuts off the head and drains the blood into a glass of arrack. He adds the bile and serves the drink as a treatment for respiratory ailments, skin problems, aches or indigestion. It is also said to improve a man’s stamina and sex life.

NewsOnABC April 21, 2010
Indonesians are relying on snakes as a quick fix for everything from skin rashes to erectile dysfunction.


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