FERULA 



FCETIDA 



Asafetida 



Gum-resin. 

 Hing. 



Chemistry and 

 Medicine. 



He found the word kema generic, the asafetida plant being anguza-kema, and 

 Ammoniacum kandal-kema. [Cf. Stapf, Kew Bull., 1907, 375-88.] Commenting 

 on this view, the authors of the Pharmacographia Indica (ii., 143) observe, " It 

 would appear then that the kind of asafoetida called tyib by the Arabs and their 

 followers is the drug of European commerce, the produce of Feruinfaetitta, Hegel, 

 and not that of f. aiiiaeea, Boiss., which produces the king of India." Holmes 

 in the Pharmaceutical Journal (3rd ser., xix., 21-34, 41-4, 365-8), and the various 

 Museum Catalogues of the Phamaceutical Society of Great Britain, has afforded 

 many useful particulars and focussed the practical results of recent research. A 

 long account of the philology of the word " asafoetida " is given by Prof. J. 

 Attfield (Yearbook of Pharmacy, 1897, 351-6), who, after consulting Dr. Murray 

 (editor of the Oxford Dictionary), had come to the conclusion that it should, both 

 in English and Latin, be rendered " asafetida." When discussing the hing and 

 hingra, it seems probable that it would be more correct to assign these to groups 

 of species rather than to say that they were each the product of one species. 

 Indeed it would appear that the part of the plant from whence procured, the 

 season of the year when collected, the methods of preparation and degrees and 

 materials of adulteration, exercise considerable influence on the quality and 

 flavour of the resulting drugs. It is, however, convenient to group the com- 

 mercial resinous products of ferula, under three chief species : 



F. aiiiaeea, Boiss. ; Bentley and Trimen, Med. PL, 1880, ii., 126 ; 

 Dymock, Mat. Med. W. Ind., 1885, 381. In Khorasan it is called 

 angusheh, in Barman, zendebuj, while it is also known by the following 

 names hing, anjuddn, vagdrni, abhushaharu hing, Jcdyam, perun gayam, 

 inguva, anguza, etc. A herb which grows to a height of 2 to 4 feet. It 

 is found wild (is not, at all events, cultivated) in Eastern Persia in the 

 neighbourhood of Djendack and Yezd, and in Khorasan near Seharud, 

 Nischapur, Meshed, Dehrachtindjan and Kerman. It prefers a stony, 

 arid soil, and is found at an altitude of 7,000 feet. This plant is the 

 chief source of the asafetida used in India and known as hing (which 

 means pure or superior hingra), while that of European commerce is the 

 product mostly of F. fcetlda hingra. 



This might be spoken of as the edible form. The GUM-RESIN is obtained by 

 wounding the upper part of the root, from which a small quantity of a fine 

 gum escapes and is collected. The living root is then sliced daily, or every two 

 or three days, with the exudation adhering to it, till exhausted. The whole 

 mass, consisting of alternate layers of root and gum-resin, is then packed in a 

 skin. As found in the market, the resin consists of a blackish-brown, brittle 

 mass of extremely fetid odour, unadulterated with earth or gypsum, but always 

 with slices of the root. In Bombay it is sometimes adulterated by the addition 

 of gum-arabic, and the cheaper sorts contain an undue proportion of root. 

 Adulteration with sliced potato also takes place. 



The resinous mass contains an abundant essential oil which differs from that 

 of hingra in having a reddish hue, a higher specific gravity, and a stronger 

 rotatory power. An alcoholic tincture is not precipitated by acetate of lead, 

 nor is the sulphuric-acid solution fluorescent. From earliest times the gum has 

 been held in esteem by Eastern doctors. It is a carminative and antispasmodic, 

 and taken daily is said to ward off malarial fever. It is also recommended as 

 a vermifuge. [Cf. Pharmacog. Ind., 1890, ii., 141-7 ; Kanny Lall Dey, Indig. 

 Drugs 2nd., 1896, 127-8 ; Thorpe, Diet. Appl. Chem., 1898, ii., 273.] 



F. foetida, Regel ; Drude, in Engler and Prantl, Pflanzenfam., iii., 

 231 ; Kew Mus. Guide, 1907, No. 1, 115 ; hingra, anguza-kema, Jcurne- 

 Jcema, Jchora-Jcema, vaghayani, hingu, etc. A herb with a circular mass 

 of foliage, springing annually from a perennial root stock. It grows in 

 Southern Turkestan, Persia and Afghanistan. This would appear to 

 have been the Persian plant sent by Dr. Guthrie of Edinburgh, and grown 

 in the Botanic Gardens there in 1780. [Cf. Phil. Trans., 1785, kxv., 36.] 



Qutji-resin. This is the European drug of commerce, and is obtained from 

 Laristan in Persia and from Herat in Afghanistan. It is collected in June, 



534 



