History Main / SolidGoldPoop

* The novel ''Brightness Falls from the Air'' by James Tiptree, Jr. Tiny, pixie-like beings are tortured to death for their tears, which have a valuable property, either narcotic or aphrodisiac.

* There is a fairy tale of three brothers who do good deeds and are rewarded with magical items, which are stolen by a greedy innkeeper when the elder two show them off, and the youngest wins them back by using [[CarryABigStick his gift]] to beat the fear of God into the innkeeper. The second son's gift was a donkey that "produced gold coins from both ends" on command (the innkeeper swaps it out with an ordinary donkey, which when commanded to produce gold... produces something else).

* The novel ''Literature/Camelot30K'' has the keracks, one-eyed centimeters-long prawns (with an {{Expy}} KingArthur society) who have around a hundred orifices... each of which excretes an element in the periodic table.

* Yeast
** The alcohol in most alcoholic beverages is the waste product of yeast (for the most part brewer's yeast, ''Saccharomyces cerevisiae''[[note]]Literally "sugar-fungus of beer"[[/note]]) feeding on sugars during the fermentation process. The process for making sake and other "rice wines" also uses an additional fungus (''Aspergillus oryzae'', which releases enzymes that break down the starch into simple sugars the ''Saccharomyces'' can further ferment into alcohol[[note]]All alcohol produced from starchy rather than sweet source material more or less requires this additional step of turning starch into simple sugars; it's just that instead of having a fungus do that job, Western alcohols like beer, whiskey, and vodka use malted--that is, sprouted--grain to supply enzymes that break down starch into its simpler component sugars. Not all of the starch has to come from the malted grain, but some malt needs to go in to supply the enzyme.[[/note]]) and pulque (a traditional fermented Mexican drink, made from agave sap) uses a bacterium, but it's the same general idea.
** The same process causes yeast-leavened breads to rise. Again, ''Saccharomyces cerevisiae'' is the microbe responsible. Yes, it is the ''exact same process'': fermentation takes glucose and other simple sugars and transforms it into ethanol and carbon dioxide. In alcohol production, you're looking for the ethanol, while the CO[[subscript:2]] is simply allowed to escape (unless you're making sparkling wine or certain types of beer; even there, you often run two separate fermentations, one to produce the alcohol, and a second refermentation with added sugar to create the bubbles), while in baking you want the gas while letting the alcohol boil off in the oven. So, to be crude as possible: in alcohol production, you want yeast poop, and in baking, you want the yeast farts.
*** Breweries and bakeries often used to set up shop next to each other. Why? Because brewers could give/sell the bakers the yeast-laden scum from the production of ale to the bakers. The bakers in turn would use it to leaven their bread: the scum, called "barm", was easier to handle and produced what many believed was a better-tasting product than the earlier method (making sourdough with a starter that had to be constantly maintained). Incidentally, this is how we get the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barm_cake barm cake.]]
** Yeast is also the source of famous Australian food Vegemite, and before that, famous British food Marmite. Both are made of leftover yeast from beer production.
* Other fermented foods, such as cheese, yogurt, buttermilk, salami, soy sauce, some preparations of tofu, sauerkraut, and certain other pickles and condiments are derived from similar processes involving different bacteria. All of these along with yeast-related foods are multi-millon dollar industries.
* Ambergris. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambergris Whale vomit.]] What isn't vomited up, is in fact shat out the other end. Historically used in perfumes, incense, and even food. Alternatives are available, but that doesn't stop it from being worth [[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4642722.stm $20 a gram.]]

The reason why the species itself doesn't find this material valuable is that it may be, [[IncrediblyLamePun ahem]], [[WorthlessYellowRocks common as crap]] on its homeworld. Face it, it may be valuable, but it's still poo, vomit, etc. Oftentimes a facet of BizarreAlienBiology, and may lead to HumansAreBastards if we get a little too wealth hungry. Can lead to MainliningTheMonster if the Solid Gold Poop isn't gold, but something addictive. Compare PoopingFood, where the waste turns out to be perfectly edible food. Contrast AlienLunch, which is what goes in to the alien body. Though this is TruthInTelevision when you consider the useful and unusual applications of real-life animal droppings...

* Other fermented foods, such as Cheese, Yogurt, Soy Sauce, Tofu, Sauerkraut, and other various pickles and condiments are derived from similar processes involving different bacteria. All of these along with Yeast-related foods are multi-millon dollar industries.
* Ambergris. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambergris Whale Vomit.]] What isn't vomited up, is in fact shat out the other end. Historically used in perfumes, incense, and even food. Alternatives are available, but that doesn't stop it from being worth [[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4642722.stm $20 a gram.]]

** Dyes derived from plants, such as Indigo, often go through processes that mean that they are incredibly bad smelling - but the end product was incredibly expensive.

* Horse manure is one constituent of molds used for casting bronze. It goes back as far as ancient Ireland, but it's still used today. Also, it's pretty watertight, making it a good filler for removable doors in flood-walls. Like guano, it's a great fertilizer that is also 100% organic.

* Bees eat nectar and then vomit it back up several times. After it dries out, it's honey. This isn't a true example, as it's not a waste product. It's supposed to be eaten--by the bees, mind you, although humans have bred bees and supplied them with bountiful nectar sources to the point where the bees make far more honey than the hive could ever use. A true example is when bees use the secretions of aphids, honeydew, to make honeydew honey.

* Leather tanning used to be made with the chemicals present in animal urine and excrement. It is now made with tannins extracted from tree bark or with mineral salts.

** The mushroom ''amanita muscaria'', or fly agaric, contains a psychoactive drug. In Siberia and India, tribal shamans would eat it and then give his urine to everyone else (apparently it had less side effects once it had gone through his kidneys). In some parts of Siberia, the rich would buy the drug and then sell their urine to the poor. Allegedly, that could be repeated 4-5 times.

* In ''Manga/DailyLifeWithMonsterGirl'', even unfertilized [[HarpingOnAboutHarpies Harpy]] eggs go for 3 '''million''' yen on the black market. There's also apparently a market for shed Lamia skin and [[SpiderPeople Arachne]] silk.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''

* After the main storyline of ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'' expansion ''Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep'', [[spoiler:the Queen Butt Stallion can crap out loot when you feed her eridium.]]

* ''{{WebComic/Starslip}}'' - Cirbozoids have [[BizarreAlienBiology so many weird things]] going on in their bodies that they produce pretty much anything you could ask for as waste products. Mr. Jinx references it occasionally: his exoskeleton secretes ritalin, he has a "smelting cloaca" which deals with unneeded iron, and in the most recent arc, when he stopped eating to combat a sudden, unexpected, and highly problematic growth spurt, his body responded by making its own sustenance.

* ''Western/Animation/{{Hilda}}'': "The Jorts Incident" reveals that the Tide Mice apparently poop gold. When David pockets the poop, it burns a hole in his pocket and dissolves.

** In the classic serial "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E6TheCavesOfAndrozani The Caves of Androzani]]", the highly valuable life-extending drug spectrox is made from something produced by the bats dwelling in the titular caves. The exact nature of the substance is never explained; however, antidote to spectrox toxaemia is the milk of the queen bat, which the Doctor uses to save Peri's life at the cost of his own. His HeroicSacrifice takes on a bit of fridge hilarity when you realise that the Fifth Doctor's last act was to ''milk a bat''.

* Antidote for snake bites can be made from snake venom. This is done by injecting it into blood or other living tissues and harvesting the biological defences produced.

The reason why the species itself doesn't find this material valuable is that it may be, [[IncrediblyLamePun ahem]], [[WorthlessYellowRocks common as crap]] on its homeworld. And face it, it may be valuable, but it's still poo, vomit, etc. Oftentimes a facet of BizarreAlienBiology, and may lead to HumansAreBastards if we get a little too wealth hungry. Can lead to MainliningTheMonster if the Solid Gold Poop isn't gold, but something addictive. Compare PoopingFood, where the waste turns out to be perfectly edible food. Contrast AlienLunch, which is what goes in to the alien body. Though this is TruthInTelevision when you consider the useful and unusual applications of real-life animal droppings...

* In ''Literature/PerdidoStreetStation'', there's a new drug going around New Crobuzon called dreamshit. Isaac feeds it to a strange caterpillar he has because it's the only thing it's interested in eating. It turns out that [[spoiler: dreamshit is made from the secretions of captive adult slake-moths, which they use to feed their larvae. Slake-moths are [[GiantSpider huge]], [[IntangibleMan phasing]], [[BrainFood thought-eating]] monsters, and raw dreamshit is digested souls. And Isaac's caterpillar grows up.]]

* The ancient Aztecs called gold "shit of the gods". Makes at least somewhat sense. And if the same source is correct, the Quechua (Inca) called gold "sweatdrops of the sun" and silver "tears of the moon."

* There is a fairy tale of a girl whose mouth produced gemstones whenever she spoke. A prince or noble of some sort wants to marry her for this ability... until she takes a vow of silence. A similar fairy tale specifies that the girl gains this ability because she was kind to an old lady who turned out to be a fairy in disguise, testing peoples' generosity. When her vain and avaricious sister learns how she gained this remarkable capability, she sets out to find the "old lady" herself. And she does, too, but her greed gets the better of her and she gives herself away. Having failed the fairy's test, she is instead enchanted to have toads and slugs tumble from her lips when she speaks. Bet she learned to shut up fast.

* ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac'' has literal golden poop, which drops coins [[note]] Which can either be pennies, nickles, or dimes [[/note]] or the Counterfeit Penny trinket (provided you've unlocked it) when destroyed. You can either find it rarely replacing regular poop, or by using the spacebar item "The Poop" if you also have the [[TheMagicTouch Midas Touch item]].

* ''VideoGame/MapleStory'' seems to mock this trope with the item [[http://www.mapletip.com/maplestory-equipment/the+legendary+gold+poop+hat/1002239/ "The Legendary Gold Poop Hat"]]. What's sad is that this item is in a series of three items: Pairing it with an item based on flies makes flies circle around your character, while there is a purely aesthetic item along with it known as the "Poo Stick". No, I am not making this up. Yes, they are [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Exactly What They Say on the Tin]].

* A SufficientlyAdvancedAlien in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' appears to the children as a taco... that poops ice cream on the kids' suggestion, after the alien tried countless other forms that they didn't like. {{Squick}} factor aside, it would probably be delicious. And Cartman is indeed shown eating the ice cream while the aliens check on the status of his probe.

** The same process causes yeast-leavened breads to rise. Again, ''Saccharomyces cerevisiae'' is the microbe responsible. And yes, it is the ''exact same process'': fermentation takes glucose and other simple sugars and transforms it into ethanol and carbon dioxide. In alcohol production, you're looking for the ethanol, while the CO[[subscript:2]] is simply allowed to escape (unless you're making sparkling wine or certain types of beer; even there, you often run two separate fermentations, one to produce the alcohol, and a second refermentation with added sugar to create the bubbles), while in baking you want the gas while letting the alcohol boil off in the oven. So, to be crude as possible: in alcohol production, you want yeast poop, and in baking, you want the yeast farts.

* Dye has a rich history of involving nasty organic substances, some of which fit this trope. The famous purple dye of ancient Tyre (which was extremely valuable and gave rise to the association of purple with royalty) was made out of something mucus-y secreted by a sea snail. And urine was often a component in dyes or mordants to help the color set. Easy to collect, after all. "[[Series/{{QI}} So the reason that policemen's uniforms used to be such a rich and impressive hue was that they had been widdled on by Geordies]]."

* Horse manure is one constituent of molds used for casting bronze. It goes back as far as ancient Ireland, but it's still used today. Also, it's pretty watertight, making it a good filler for removable doors in flood-walls. And, like guano, it's a great fertilizer that is also 100% organic.

* Phosphorus (the active ingredient in match heads) was first isolated by boiling urine with charcoal and sand. And since it's becoming apparent that in the coming years the world supplies of the stuff are going to run short, there have been toilet seats developed for the future needs that actually isolate and collect it from the urine, ready for sale.

** Contrary to popular belief, peeing on a jellyfish sting does not help it heal, even if it is sterile. In fact, the ammonia in urine can actually make it worse. The sting should be treated with liberal amounts of vinegar. The next best thing to do is to flush the stung area with hot salt water (NOT seawater).

* Symbiotic microorganisms are living off the fiber -- cellulose, indigestible to humans -- in your large intestine right now. Basically, they're eating your poo. And you're deriving useful vitamins from ''their'' metabolic waste products, so you're eating theirs.

* TruthInTelevision in parts of the world where people burn animal or other dung for want of other fuel. AldousHuxley, in his travel book ''JestingPilate'', describes being hailed as a lord by a grateful woman when the elephant he is riding defecates copiously in front of her house.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', Hagrid has access to all sorts of magical beings, and their waste products. Unicorn hair, for example, is used in wands and potions. Hagrid uses the unicorn tail hair he finds caught in hedges or such as replacement for bandages or thread.

* In the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse, glitterstim spice, the FantasticDrug on which many a vast criminal fortune (including Jabba the Hutt's) has been built, is the poop of a species of underground spiders that live on only one planet in the galaxy.

* ''Series/TheMagicians'' featured the world of Fillory in Season 2 and onwards where a local species of insects literally called "Gold-shitting Beetles" [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin do exactly as they're called.]]. Unfortunatelly they become endangered and later extinct due to magic failing whcih leaves the economy in serious danger.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotter", Hagrid has access to all sorts of magical beings, and their waste products. Unicorn hair, for example, is used in wands and potions. Hagrid uses the unicorn tail hair he finds caught in hedges or such as replacement for bandages or thread.

* While not poop, the old Roman Eifel aqueduct was heavily mined during the middle ages for the thick layers calcium carbonate that had accreted to its walls during periods of lack of maintenance before it was ultimately cut. People actually used it as decorations as "Eifel Marble" even though it's the same stuff modern plumbers try like mad to keep from forming in pipes.