A villager surnamed Deng in Xiangtan, Hunan Province, downs an elixir made from cow and goat excrement that she believes has helped heal her gynecological condition. Photo: CFP

More than 30 villagers in Xiangtan, Hunan Province believe they have found a cure to cancer in a scatological source - liquid cow and goat poop.

"Fresh excrement is the best," said Huang Shuiqing, a 68-year-old woman who like many in Jinshiqiao village believes the feces to hold medicinal properties.

The animal dung is first sun-dried, ground and dissolved in hot water to create the excrement elixir.

The local health craze caught on after two villagers claimed to have beaten cancer by drinking the bowel broth.

Ma Suqun, 77, said she became hooked after her son heard of the treatment while in Hainan Province 10 months earlier and was convinced it would treat her lung cancer.

Ma has already consumed more than nine kilograms of the cow-goat concoction. She claims to feel better, though she has not visited a hospital for any follow-up exams.

Other villagers began to follow suit, believing that if the therapy cures cancer, it can cure anything.

Liu Shaogui, a doctor at the No.1 Affiliated Hospital to the Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, explained that consuming cow and goat dung is prescribed in ancient Chinese medical texts as a way to "flush out heat and toxins."

However, there is no clinical research backing the villagers' cancer-curing claims, Liu said, who run the risk of bacterial infection and parasites if the dung is not properly treated.

Xiaoxiang Morning Post