Mare's Milk and Kumis

Kyrgyz people have been preparing kumys and highly valuing its nutritional and healing properties since ancient times.

According to excavations by Swedish archaeologists, kumys is 5,500 years old. The first mentions of kumys can be found in sources published before our era. Homer and Herodotus (484-424 BC) mentioned in their descriptions of the nomadic Scythians that the favorite drink of this people was a special beverage made by churning mare's milk in deep vats. Nomadic peoples (Kyrgyz, Kazakhs, Bashkirs, and others) kept the technology of preparation a secret for centuries. As reported by the historian Herodotus, the Scythians were so afraid of "information leaks" about kumys that they blinded all slaves who revealed this secret. The nomads – Scythians would pour the upper layers of the drink into separate containers, which they considered the best part.

Descriptions of kumys can also be found in ancient Russian chronicles – the "Ipatiev Chronicle".

Marco Polo (1254-1324) mentioned kumys, comparing it to white wine. A few years before Marco Polo's reports, the French scholar Rubricus V. (1253) described the preparation of kumys in detail, its taste, and its beneficial effects on the human body.

The first information about the healing properties of kumys can be found in the works of Abu Ali Ibn Sina. A thousand years ago, the great Avicenna cured the vizier Suhail from urolithiasis with kumys.

More than 110 years ago, Russian doctors were the first in the world to establish a school of kumys treatment. An active researcher and founder of the kumys sanatorium in Russia was doctor Postnikov N.V., who defined the properties of kumys in three words: "nourishes, strengthens, renews." In 1858, Postnikov N.V. established the first medical institution in Russia and put kumys treatment on a scientific basis. He published many articles and then released books in Samara: "Kumys Treatment Institution near the city of Samara" and "On Kumys, Its Properties and Effects on the Human Body." Postnikov N.V. himself constantly drank kumys, which helped him maintain the ability to work actively until the age of 92.

The famous Russian writer Aksakov S.T. described in detail in "Family Chronicle" how his mother was treated with kumys on the advice of Ufa doctors. The writer, who observed the lifestyle of Bashkir nomads at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries, vividly noted the immense health benefits of kumys: "...and everyone who can drink, from an infant to a frail old man, drinks to the point of intoxication the healing, gracious, heroic drink, and marvelously the ailments of the hungry winter and even old age disappear, the emaciated faces are filled out, and the pale sunken cheeks are covered with a blush...".

Dal V. (1843) wrote that once accustomed to kumys, one inevitably prefers it to all other drinks without exception. It cools, simultaneously satisfies hunger and thirst, and provides a special vigor without ever overwhelming or burdening the stomach.

The healing properties of kumys were highly valued by outstanding medical scientists: Botkin S.P., Zakharin G.A., Skvortsov N.V., and others. Botkin S.P. called kumys a "wonderful remedy" and believed that the preparation of this drink should become a common heritage.

The tsar's envoy for foreign affairs Levshin A.I. noted in his book "Description of the Kirghiz-Kaisak Hordes and Steppes" that kumys has significant advantages over other medicinal substances in its composition and beneficial effects on the human body. He wrote that, thanks to this drink, "breast and consumptive diseases among the Kyrgyz are rare."

In 1868, at the request of the empress, Moscow merchant Maretsky V.S. established the first kumys treatment institution in Sokolniki near Moscow. Kumys for this sanatorium was prepared in Ostankino.

In modern Russia, a number of kumys treatment facilities operate, where rehabilitation is conducted for various organ and system diseases.

Mare's Milk

The horse has an amazing character: it has a delicate taste and carefully separates grass from weeds in its trough. This intelligent and clean animal will never eat spoiled feed or drink water with a bad smell or mixed with harmful substances. Therefore, it was customary among nomads to bathe a newborn baby in water that a horse had drunk.

The high nutritional and healing properties of kumys can primarily be explained by the composition of mare's milk used for its preparation.

A mare is milked at intervals of 1 to 2 hours, with each milking yielding 0.5-1.5 liters of milk. Freshly milked mare's milk has a neutral reaction, is very bland, has a sweetish taste, and ranges in color from bluish-white to slightly brownish. Important components of the milk include lactose, proteins, fat, vitamins, enzymes, and minerals.

The composition of mare's milk differs significantly from that of cow's milk and other animals. It contains 2 times less protein, fat, and minerals, and almost 1.5 times more lactose than cow's milk. The acidity of the milk is low – about 6ºT (pH=6.6-7.0), and the density is 1032-1034 kg/ml (Table 1).

Table 1.


Mare's milk has high biological value. In terms of quantity and composition of proteins, mare's milk belongs to the albumin group. The ratio of albumin to casein in mare's milk is 1:1, and the casein of mare's milk differs from that of cow's milk as it dissolves more easily in water and is well soluble in gastric juice. Therefore, when mare's milk curdles, a dense clot does not form; the protein precipitates in the form of delicate small flakes.

The whey protein of mare's milk is represented by alpha-lactalbumin (40-60%) and beta-lactoglobulin (35-50%) fractions. The proteins have a well-balanced amino acid composition. The protein in mare's milk is rich in essential amino acids.

The high sugar content in mare's milk determines the specificity of its technological properties during processing into kumys, as sugar is a good energy source for lactic acid and alcoholic fermentation.

The fat in mare's milk is less than in cow's milk, but its advantage is that it is rich in linoleic, linolenic, and arachidonic acids, which inhibit the development of tuberculosis bacteria, whereas in cow's milk fat, they develop vigorously.

Due to the small size of fat globules and the lower melting temperature (20-23ºC), the fat in mare's milk has a delicate consistency, which allows it to be easily absorbed in the intestine. The amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids in it is almost 10 times higher than in cow's milk.

Mare's milk contains many water-soluble and fat-soluble vitamins. It contains vitamin A up to 300 mg/l, vitamin E up to 1000 mg/l, vitamin C up to 135 mg/l, vitamin B1 up to 290 mg/l, biotin up to 11.2 mcg/l, vitamin B2 up to 370-390 mg/l, vitamin B12 up to 2.52 mcg/l, and others.