HlN(i AND HINGRA 





FERULA 



OALBANIFLUA 

 Qalbanum 



I!H> m. ! !>'.! |iurnued being briefly tut follows : The tap-root* are exposed for Collection. 

 a i-,ni|il.. .if im-li.-t. A tlni'k nlice is cut from the top, from which u quantity of 

 milk KMidf.s. Tim ni.it is tin >ii proti-rtcd H..IH thoHim ly a d<.t lure, 



i.'h. . in height, called a khorn, formed of twigs and olay and which has an 

 .|.,-iiiiix to \\artU th.- north. In five or six weeks' time a thick, gummy, xi 

 substance appears in irregular lumps on the exposed substance of the root. 

 Tin-; is si-ra-pod off or removed along with a slice of the root, and placed in a 

 l.-.ith.-r bag. It was reported that the plants were sometimes operated upon 

 in-'i-.- than once during the season. The gum is next carried to Herat, wh> 

 is deliberately adulterated. [Cf. Aitchison, Pharm. Journ. and Trans., Dec. 11, Adulteration. 



Masson (Journ. Kalat, 1848, 451-3) speaks of the plant as flourishing 

 in Seistan, the gum being collected as nuahki. Hollow, in his account, says 

 that after cutting the plant through, above the root, three or four incisions are 

 in the stump, and the operation of incision is repeated every three or 

 four days, so long as sap continues to exude. A particular sort is mentioned by 

 the same writer as being obtained solely from the node or leaf-bud in the centre of 

 the newly sprouting plant. This kind is never adulterated, and may be the fine 

 quality of the drug known as Khandahari-hing (Pharmacog. Ind., ii., 151). The 

 I'ominon form is much adulterated by a kind of red clay (tawah), by wheat or 

 barley flour, and by powdered gypsum. It is also mixed with slices of the 

 root. All species of the drug have a powerful, garlic odour, and a bitter acrid 

 taste. Except Khandahari-hing, this variety of asafetida is not used in 

 India. 



Maynard and Prain, on the Botany of Baluch- Afghan Boundary Commission 

 of 1896 (Rec. Bot. Surv. Ind., i., 130-1), furnish interesting details of the 

 collections of the commercial article on the hills between Samuli and Robat. 

 Asafetida, they observe, affects bare rocky hillsides. It is the plant, or at least 

 one of the plants, that people from Kandahar yearly visit the Koh-i-Sultan 

 to collect. Sir Arthur H. McMahon described the collection of the gum from 

 personal observation. The heads are cut down to within one or two inches of 

 the ground. The cut ends are then covered with a little dry earth in order, 

 the collectors say, to keep the wind off. After twenty hours the people collect 

 what has exuded and cut the stalk down another eighth of an inch. But the 

 milk is not allowed to dry in the sun ; to obviate this the collectors build 

 small stone traps, open at one side, over each plant, in order to keep off the 

 sun's rays. The juice when partly dried is mixed with some kind of earth, 

 like fuller's-earth ; this is merely to increase the weight, and not with any idea 

 of improving the quality. Doubtless the precautions taken to prevent drying 

 are mainly with a view to facilitate this subsequent adulteration. 



Asafetida consists of resin, gum and essential oil in varying proportions, Medicine, 

 but the resin generally amounts to more than one-half. It is partly soluble in 

 ether or chloroform. The oil may be separated by distillation. It is light- 

 yellow, with a pungent odour, and if exposed to the air evolves sulphuretted 

 hydrogen. An alcoholic tincture of the drug is precipitated by acetate of lead, 

 and a solution in sulphuric acid is fluorescent. Medicinally it is used in Europe 

 as an antispasmodic and stimulant (see Vinegar, p. 1110). 



According to Bellew, Masson and Aitchison, the Natives of Bokhara employ 

 the leaves as a green vegetable, while the white underpart of the stem of the full- 

 grown plant is considered a delicacy when roasted and flavoured with salt and 

 butter. [Cf. Borazczow, Ferulaceen, 1860, 3-26 ; Pharmacog. Ind., 1890, ii., 147- 

 52 ; Oard. Chron., 1896, 330-1 ; Thorpe, Diet. Appl. Chem., 1898, ii., 273 ; Dutt, 

 Mat. Med. Hind., 1900, 175-6; White and Humphrey, Pharmacop., 1904, 82-3 ; 

 Tschirch, Die Harze und die Harzbehdlter, 1906, i., 360-76.] 



F. galbaniflua, Boiss. & Buhse. This is the chief source of the drug 

 known as Galbanum ; bireja, ganda-biroza, badra-kema, barzed. It is a 

 native of Persia (especially Shiraz and Kirman), from which the gum is 

 imported into Bombay and re-exported to Egypt and Turkey. Around 

 Gulran it is reported to be specially common. 



Oum-resln. There are three kinds known in commerce : Levant, Persian, Gum-rin. 

 Solid, and Persian Liquid. The first comes from Shiraz, and is known as khassnib; 

 the second has an odour of turpentine, and the third is the goo-shir or jawdahir. As 

 met with in India, gao (jao)-ahir is a yellow or greenish semi-fluid resin, generally 

 mixed with the stems, flowers and fruits of the plant. It is obtained from the 



535 



Method of 



(."ollrrtioii. 



