Interestingly enough, urea was first discovered in 1773 in human urine. Then sometime in the 1800's, scientists discovered a laboratory procedure to create urea: by dehydrating ammonium carbonate. Today, urea has different functions for different things. Though urea has many uses, it makes me feel less grossed-out that scientists don't use the urea that come from pee any longer, but rather the one that is synthesized in the lab. Next, I will tell of some of the uses urea has.
Of all of the compounds containing nitrogen in fertilizers, urea contains the most nitrogen. Therefore, urea is used in nitrogen-based fertilizers in agriculture to help fertilize soil. It can also be found in plastic to help prevent the material from shrinking, absorbing water, and breaking easily. It is also found in SNCR (Selective Non Catalytic Reduction), a method to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions in power plants that burn up coal, fossil fuel, and biomass. It can also be used medically for re-hydration of skin, such as lotions (again, this is why am I am especially glad the urea used here doesn't come from urine).
Last but not least, urea can be used to help make the process of organic tie-dye better (t-shirt tie-dyeing). Urea helps serve two purposes in tie-dye: first, it helps any undissolved dye to be completely dissolved (especially true for the darker colors). Secondly, it serves as a "water-attractor", so it keeps the shirt wet just long enough for the reaction of the tie-dye to occur effectively.
Urea is a reasonably safe organic compound compared to many chemicals. Pure urea is actually odorless, so if you ever run across smelly urea, it has gone bad. The beauty of bad urea is this: though it is useless for tie-dye or medical uses, it can still be used as a fertilizer. Urea is a green and an organic compound. It doesn't get any better than that.
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