SIU'UION AND LASER 



FERULA 



Aaafetida 



[Cf. A Bull, 1H93. 3; MoHutohin, Auess. Rept., Kashmir, 1894, ii., 6-14; 



li.ir.-l.iy. .!</". /.''/>/., ivi... N". -'<. :66-7 ; Diack, /Sett/. KuUu, 1808,8-10; 

 ,lg., 1898. No. 15, 616 ; Thorpe, Diet. Appl. Chem., 1898, i., 38H ; 



;i. 



i, Food-Grains of Ind., 1901 (auppl.), 9-10 ; Rawson. Gardner and Lsyoook, 

 I'.HH, 70 ; Loach, Food Inspect, and Anal., 1905, 213, 239-40.] 



FERULA, Linn.: Fl. Br. Ind., ii., 707-8; Aitchison, Trans. D.E.P. 

 inn. Soc. (2nd. scr.), iii., 67-9. A genus of umbelliferous herbs whirh iii - 328-39. 

 ntiiins some i\tv species found in Kurope, North Africa and Central -Asafetida. 

 They grow from perennial root stocks, and some attain annually a 

 of from 8 to 10 feet. They afford the various forms of Asafetida, 

 iaMiamim, Sambul, etc. 



History. The silphion of the early Greek writers was an edible product 

 .1 very possibly from a species of f-'-ni, but was not asafetida as accepted 

 in nmiliTM commerce. The laser (laserpitium) of later writers, on the other 

 hand, was very possibly the medicinal drug of the present day. Though botani- 

 .;illv quito distinct, the edible silphion is strongly suggestive of the edible hing 

 <>f modern Indian commerce. [Cf. Oersted, Silphium of the Ancients, in Journ. 

 'ot., 1873, ii., ii.s., 176-9.] Theophrastus (Hist. PI., vi., ch. 3 (ed. Scaliger), 

 644, 598-9) speaks of two varieties, one coming from the stem, the other from 

 root. Dioscorides mentions two kinds, one obtained from Gyrene, the 

 er from Asia. Strabo contrasts the Asiatic gum with that known in Europe, 

 lautus (220 B.C.) makes frequent mention of laser, and Galen, ^Etius, Oribasius 

 il 1'aulus .5gineta all deal with its medicinal virtues. Celsus gives an in- 

 iresting description, and Pliny bases his encomium on the account furnished by 

 ioscorides, but he lays special stress on the fact that silphion had disappeared 

 ,d its place been taken by the much inferior laser of Persia. By Sanskrit 

 edical authors the gum is hingu and the plant jatuka ; by Arabic writers it is 

 or hiltut, and by Persian anguzan. But so far as can be learned there is no 

 classic mention of the distinction between hing and hingra. References to the 

 medicinal uses of the drug (hingu or himgu) will be found in The Bower Manu- 

 ipt (5th century A.D.) (Hoernle, transl., 1893-7, 81, 85, 86, 180, etc). 



Myrepsicus was apparently the first writer who combined the Arab name asa Awo Writers, 

 with the descriptive word fetida, a new name, he tells us, used by the Italians. 

 Ibn Sina (Avicenna), a Muhammadan, who lived in the 10th century, mentions 

 two kinds of asa, viz. tyib (good) and muntin (fetid), while Ali Istakhri, who also 

 ed about the same time, states that the drug was produced in the desert be- 

 een Seistan and Makran. The geographer Edrisi, who wrote about the middle 

 the 12th century, says that asafetida was collected largely in Western Afghani- 

 It is perhaps significant that Marco Polo, who marched (1290) through a Accounts of 

 ,t portion of the country where certain grades of this drug are produced, should -j5^^ crs 

 ke no reference to it. Garcia de Orta (1563, Coll., vii. ; also Ball,Comment.,Proc. 

 Ir. Acad., 1889-91, 393) mentions that it was reported to reach India from 

 orasan through Hormuz, but was also grown in Gujarat, and from Dely, 

 land bordering on Khorasan and Chiman. Acosta (Tract, de las Drogas, 

 1578, 362) gives many interesting particulars of the drug imported into India. 

 Jacobus Bontius (Hist. Nat. et Med. Ind. Or., in Piso, Ind. Utri. re Nat. et Med., 

 1658, 41) relates that the plant from which asafetida is produced grows in Persia, 

 between the States of Lara and Gamaron. Mandelslo (Travels, 1638, in Olearius, 

 'ist. Muscovy, etc., 84) furnishes a similar account. Bontius also states that by 

 ie Javans and the Malays and other inhabitants of India it is called hin. 

 yer (New Ace. E. Ind. and Pers., 1675, 239) intimates that asafetida is 

 .thorod at a place called Descoon, and says it differs from the stuff the Indians 

 ,11 hing, which comes from the province of Carmania. 



N'<> satisfactory account of the plant yielding asafetida was given till 1712 

 ( K.iMnpfr, Amwn. Exot., 537 and ph). Hove (Tours in Qujarat, etc., 1855, 133), who 

 visited Bombay in 1787, describes the cakes flavoured with asafetida that he was 

 given to eat. He also says there are two kinds hing and hingra. Milburn 

 (Or. Comm., 1813, i., 133) gives a description of the commercial drug of his Hingn. 

 day, and states that it had been in use nearly 1,000 years. But he was in error 

 when ho supposed this to be the true asafetida plant. Aitchison. who travelled 

 in K;i-<ti>rn Persia, Baluchistan and Afghanistan (with the Afghan Boundary 

 Delimitation Commission of 1884-5) elucidated this obscure subject very largely. 



533 



met 



ten 



witl 



Asafeti'la 

 Biscuit*. 



and 



