A gallon of semen from a popular show jumping stallion is worth $4.7 million.
Horseshoe crab blood
Due to the presence of copper, the blood of a horseshoe crab is an alien blue. What makes this blue liquid so valuable, though, is a fluid called limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) found in Atlantic horseshoe crabs. When it was introduced to the pharmaceutical industry in the 1970s, LAL provided researchers with a revolutionary way of testing for bacteria and contaminants in drugs. Today, it remains an important step in vaccine development — and one of the key ingredients in testing COVID-19 vaccines. Due to the high demand for horseshoe crab blood and practices of over-harvesting, however, horseshoe crabs around the world are now facing serious threats to their survival.
Horse semen
Horse semen is one of the most expensive liquids in the world, thanks to the star stallions in the highly competitive and lucrative equestrian sports industry. In 2015, it cost $200,000 for mare-owners to secure a mating session with American Pharoah, the famed Triple Crown winner. The Triple Crown is a title awarded to horses who win all three classic American horse races — the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes — in a single season.
Scorpion venom
A little droplet of venom from the deathstalker, one of the deadliest species of scorpions, costs about $130 — and $39 million per gallon — making it arguably the most expensive liquid in the world. Why is it priced so insanely high? As it turns out, certain types of scorpion venom contains precious chemicals that may be the key to medical breakthroughs — such as chlorotoxin, which can bind with certain cancer cells for easier identification of tumors in the human body. Studies have also shown scorpion venom to be an effective painkiller. Another possible reason for its exorbitant price tag is the process of extracting scorpion venom — also known as milking — which is, quite literally, excruciating. While one sting from a deathstalker is unlikely to be fatal for humans, a venom extractor told Business Insider that it’s “a hundred times more painful than a bee sting.”
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