[OT] Asafetida Information

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http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/a/asafe070.html

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---Description---A coarse umbelliferous plant growing up to 7 feet high,

large fleshy root covered with bristly fibres, has been for some time

successfully cultivated in Edinburgh Botanical Gardens; stem 6 to 10 feet,

numerous stem leaves with wide sheathing petioles; flowers pale greeny

yellow, fruit oval, flat thin, foliaceous, reddish brown with pronounced

vittae, it has a milky juice and a strong foetid odour; was first found in

the sandy desert of Aral in 1844, but has been known since the twelfth

century. Several species of Ferula yield Asafetida. The bulk of the drug

comes from the official plant, which is indigenous to Afghanistan and grows

from two to four thousand feet above sealevel. These high plains are arid in

winter but are thickly covered in summer with a luxuriant growth of these

plants. The great cabbage-like folded heads are eaten raw by the natives.

June is the month the juice is collected from plants about four years old.

The roots of plants which have not flowered are exposed and slashed, then

shaded from the sun for five or six weeks and left for the gummy oleoresin

to leak out and harden. It is then scraped off in reddish lumps and put into

leather bags and sent to Heart, where it is adulterated before being placed

on the market. The fruit is sent to India for medicinal use. A very fine

variety of Asafetida is obtained from the leaf bud in the centre of the root

but this does not come into European commerce, and is only used in India,

where it is known in the Bazaars as Kandaharre Hing. It appears in

reddish-yellow flakes and when squeezed gives out an oil.

---Constituents---Its chief constituent is about 62 per cent of resin, 25

per cent. Of gum and 7 per cent oil. The drug also contains free ferulic

acid, water, and small quantities of various impurities.

---Medicinal Action and Uses---The odour of Asafetida is stronger and more

tenacious than that of the onion, the taste is bitter and acrid; the odour

of the gum resin depends on the volatile oil. It is much used in India and

Persia in spite of its offensive odour as a condiment and is thought to

exercise a stimulant action on the brain. It is a local stimulant to the

mucous membrane, especially to the alimentary tract, and therefore is a

remedy of great value as a carminative in flatulent colic and a useful

addition to laxative medicine. There is evidence that the volatile oil is

eliminated through the lungs, therefore it is excellent for asthma

bronchitis, whooping-cough, etc. Owing to its vile taste it is usually taken

in pill form, but is often given to infants per rectum in the form of an

emulsion. The powdered gum resin is not advocated as a medicine, the

volatile oil being quickly dissipated.

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