We found no clinical trial showing that ghee in the navel has any benefit. Putting ghee or oil in the navel, called nabhi purana, is a tradition, and claims that it passes through the navel to help the eyes, joints, fertility or digestion are unsupported. If you have a health concern, follow your doctor's advice first, and never put anything on a newborn's cord stump unless a doctor tells you to.
At a glance
- A PubMed search on 12 October 2026 for ghee or ghrita with navel, umbilicus, umbilical or nabhi, plus trial terms, returned 1 record, and it was not a trial of ghee in the navel.
- A 2024 case report in the Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine describes nabhi puran as filling the navel with oil, in 1 patient given many treatments over 2 months.
- The WHO's 2022 postnatal care guideline, in recommendation 32a, says clean, dry umbilical cord care is recommended.
- MedlinePlus says a baby's cord stump should dry and fall off by 5 to 15 days old, and should be kept clean with gauze and water only.
- A 1999 Pakistani case-control study of 229 neonatal tetanus cases and 687 controls found nearly one-third of all infants had ghee put on the umbilical wound.
Does putting ghee in the navel have any benefits?
None that has been shown in people. Our PubMed searches found no clinical trial of ghee placed in the navel, for any purpose. We found no study behind the popular claims about the eyes, joints, fertility, digestion or skin. If one of those is your concern, your doctor is the right person to ask.
That does not show the practice is harmful for a healthy adult; we found no study of its safety either. Nobody has tested it, so nobody can promise it does anything beyond leaving some fat on the skin.
Ghee is food. The ghee we make at Himdhara is cooking ghee, and we do not sell it as a remedy for anything.
What is nabhi purana, and where does it come from?
Nabhi means navel, and nabhi purana (also written nabhi puran) means filling the navel with oil. It is a procedure in Ayurvedic practice. A 2024 case report in the Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine translates it as "filling oil with navel" and lists it alongside snehan (oleation), nasya and other procedures.
That report, by Khan and colleagues, describes one 71-year-old man treated at an Ayurvedic college in Pune for the after-effects of chronic alcohol use. Over two months he received Ayurvedic medicines, yoga, oleation with oil, fomentation, oil in the nose, oil dripped on the forehead and scalp, and oil enemas, among other treatments. In the evening, his navel was filled with Bala taila, an Ayurvedic oil.
The authors explain it in Ayurvedic terms: the nabhi, they write, is the seat of Udan Vayu. That is the tradition's reasoning, not a finding, and one patient given many treatments cannot show what any one did.
The oil in that report was Bala taila, not ghee. For how ghee itself fits into the tradition, including medicated ghees, see our article on ghee in Ayurveda.
What did a search of the medical literature find?
Almost nothing on ghee in the navel. We searched PubMed on 12 October 2026 and read the titles or abstracts of every record returned. None was a trial of ghee placed in the navel. The closest were two single-patient Ayurvedic case reports and a rat study of garlic oil applied at the navel; others were studies of newborn care.
The searches and what they returned:
- Ghee or ghrita with navel, umbilicus, umbilical or nabhi, plus trial terms: 1 record, a study of training community health workers, not a trial of ghee.
- Ghee or ghrita with navel, umbilicus or nabhi: 3 records. One was that training study, one a single-patient case report of a ghee-based paste applied below the navel, and one a study of ghee and neonatal tetanus.
- "Nabhi purana", or nabhi with ghee or ghrita: 0 records each.
- Navel, umbilicus or nabhi with ghee, ghrita or oil, and Ayurveda: 2 records, both single-patient case reports.
- Navel with oil or ghee: 70 records, most about navel oranges. None tested ghee in the navel; the closest were the oil case report above and the rat study of garlic oil.
A case report describes one person and cannot separate one procedure from everything else that was done. A rat study cannot tell us what happens in people.
Which navel claims hold up?
None of the popular claims about ghee in the navel has a human trial behind it. Some say ghee is absorbed through the navel and reaches distant parts of the body; we found no study testing that. Each claim against what we found:
| Popular claim | Evidence found | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Ghee in the navel improves eyesight or dry eyes | No trial or study of ghee in the navel found | Unsupported |
| It eases joint or knee pain | No trial found | Unsupported |
| It helps fertility or periods | No trial found | Unsupported |
| It helps digestion, gas or bloating | No trial found | Unsupported |
| It softens lips or skin from the inside | No trial found; we found no human trial of ghee on facial skin either | Unsupported |
| Nabhi purana is a real Ayurvedic procedure | Described in a 2024 case report, using Bala taila, an oil | True as tradition; effect untested |
| Ghee helps a newborn's cord stump heal | WHO recommends clean, dry cord care; studies in Pakistan linked ghee on the cord with neonatal tetanus | Not supported; avoid |
"Unsupported" means we found no study either way. Our article on ghee for face and skin covers the animal and laboratory studies of ghee on skin.
Is it safe to put ghee on a newborn's navel or cord stump?
No. Put nothing on a newborn's cord stump unless your baby's doctor or nurse tells you to. The WHO's 2022 postnatal care guideline recommends clean, dry umbilical cord care. MedlinePlus, from the US National Library of Medicine, advises keeping the stump clean with gauze and water only. Ghee on the cord has been linked with neonatal tetanus.
The WHO guideline explains why. During the first days after birth, it says, the healing cord stump is a possible entry point for infection. It notes that traditional practices to seal the stump in low- and middle-income countries involve potentially harmful substances such as dirt, clay, mud and animal dung. An antiseptic is recommended only in settings where harmful traditional substances are commonly used on the cord.
Ghee has its own record here. In a 1999 study by Bennett and colleagues in Punjab Province, Pakistan, of 229 cases of neonatal tetanus and 687 matched controls, nearly one-third of all infants had ghee applied to the umbilical wound, nearly always heated first. After the authors controlled for other factors, only ghee always heated with dried cow dung fuel was significantly associated with neonatal tetanus. Ghee heated with clean fuels appeared to pose no increased risk, but the authors added that handling practices undoubtedly result in hazardous microbial contamination.
Case-control studies like this show an association, not proof of cause. Even so, their lesson matches the WHO advice: keep the stump clean and dry.
The practice appears in recent Indian research too. A 2023 study of 102 community health workers (ASHAs) in Doiwala, by researchers from Swami Rama Himalayan University in Dehradun, named the application of turmeric and ghee to a baby's umbilicus among the traditional newborn-care practices on which the workers' attitudes improved after training.
How should you care for a baby's cord stump?
Follow your doctor's, midwife's or nurse's instructions. The general advice from MedlinePlus is to keep the stump clean with gauze and water, sponge-bathe the baby until it falls off, and let it fall off on its own. MedlinePlus says it should dry and fall off by the time the baby is 5 to 15 days old.
- Keep it clean: gauze and water only, says MedlinePlus.
- No tub baths yet: sponge-bathe the baby until the stump has fallen off.
- Do not pull it: let it fall off naturally, even if it hangs by a thread.
- Watch for infection: MedlinePlus lists foul-smelling yellow drainage, and redness, swelling or tenderness around the stump.
- Contact the baby's doctor immediately for poor feeding, a fever of 38°C or higher, lethargy, or floppy, poor muscle tone, which MedlinePlus lists as signs of a more serious infection.
Who should ask a doctor before putting anything in the navel?
Anyone with a health problem they hope the practice will help, because it will not replace treatment. Ask first if your navel is red, sore, swollen, smelly or leaking, if you have had abdominal surgery or have a lump near the navel, or if you are pregnant. For a baby, ask before using anything at all.
We found no NHS or WHO guidance on oiling an adult's navel, so we cannot give a rule for it. For eating ghee, our article on ghee side effects covers who should be careful. Putting ghee in the nose has documented risks of its own, which our article on ghee nasal drops (nasya) explains.
The short version
Ghee in the navel, or nabhi purana, is a tradition, and we found no clinical trial showing any benefit. Claims that ghee passes through the navel to help the eyes, joints, fertility or digestion are unsupported. For newborns, the WHO recommends clean, dry cord care, MedlinePlus says gauze and water only, and studies in Pakistan linked ghee on the cord with neonatal tetanus. Put nothing on a baby's cord stump unless a doctor says so, and take any health concern to your doctor.
Sources
Further reading behind the figures above. Himdhara's own numbers — yields, batch results — come from our production records and the batch reports on the lab reports page.
- World Health Organization (2022). WHO recommendations on maternal and newborn care for a positive postnatal experience. WHO, Geneva.
- MedlinePlus (2025). Umbilical cord care in newborns. MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia, US National Library of Medicine.
- Bennett J, Ma C, Traverso H, Agha SB, Boring J (1999). Neonatal tetanus associated with topical umbilical ghee: covert role of cow dung. International Journal of Epidemiology.
- Khan AZ, Varghese J, Kodre S, et al. (2024). Ayurveda and Yoga management of chronic alcoholism sequelae - A case report. Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine.
- Devi RS, Pugazhendi S, Juyal R, Gaur A, Singh SB (2023). Evaluation of existing Home Based Newborn Care (HBNC) services and training for improving performance of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) in rural India: A multiple observation study. Midwifery.