FICUS 



BENOALENSIS 



Banyan 



TKADE IN ASAFETIDA 



stem, which, when injured, yields an orange-yellow gummy fluid. Generally, 

 however, the galbanum of commerce forms round, agglutinated tears, about the 

 size of peas, orange-brown outside, yellowish-white or bluish-green inside. The 

 odour is not disagreeable like that of asafetida, and the taste is bitter. 



Medicine. Galbanum consists essentially of about 65 per cent, resin, 20 per cent, gum, 



3 to 7 per cent, volatile oil. The oil is obtained by distillation with water or by 

 extraction with petroleum ether. In medicine, galbanum is administered in- 

 ternally as an expectorant, and externally it enters into the composition of 

 plasters. [Cf. Cooke, Rept. Gums, Resins, etc., in Ind., 1874, 60-1 ; Bentley and 

 Trimen, Med. PL, 1880, ii., 128 ; Pharmacog. Ind., ii., 152-6 ; Thorpe, Diet. Appl. 

 Chem., 1898, ii., 274 ; Schimmel & Co., Semi-Ann. Rept. April-May, 1901, 

 36 ; Chem. and. Drugg., 1901, lix., 374-5 ; Tschirch, I.e. 346-58.] 



F. Narthex, Boiss. ; Narthex asafoetida, Falconer, Trans. Linn. 

 Soc., 1846, xx., pt. i., 285-91 ; Balfour, Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinb., xxii., pt. 

 ii., 261-8, pi. 20-1. This plant owes its discovery to Falconer, who found 

 it in 1838 in Western Tibet on the slopes of the mountains dividing that 

 country from Kashmir. From the plants thus collected seeds were sent 

 to the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens and thence distributed all over Europe. 

 Holmes mentions that in a letter Aitchison reports that he had come on 

 F. xarthfx at the very locality where he believed Falconer originally found it. 

 He also says that Sir W. R. Lawrence, during his official tour through Jammu 

 and Kashmir in 1893, saw the plant in flower between Astor and twenty miles 

 north, near Doian. This plant was at one time accredited as the source of Tibetan 

 asafetida, but as already mentioned the European drug comes from Persia and 

 may be accepted as the produce of f. faetian and the Indian of v. niitaeen. 

 [Cf. Rec. Bot. Surv. Ind., i., 40 ; Holmes, I.e. Aug. 1894, 131 ; Kew Bull., March 

 1895, 57 ; Chem. and Drugg., 1901, lix., 374-5.] 



Imports. Trade In Asafetida. The following figures are returned as the 



Trans -frontier imports of asafetida into British India from Afghanistan, 

 Seistan, etc., for the years 1902-7 : 1902-3, 1,368 cwt., Rs. 1,73,760 ; 

 1903-4, 2,055 cwt., Rs. 2,63,891 ; 1904-5, 2,036 cwt., Rs. 2,58,762 ; 

 1905-6, 1,106 cwt., Rs. 1,38,901 ; 1906-7, 1,820 cwt., Rs. 1,59,873. 

 During the years 1903-4 the IMPORTS by sea were 13,343 cwt., valued at 

 Rs. 4,89,538 ; and in 1906-7, 6,062 cwt.," valued at Rs. 2,42,635. Practi- 

 cally the whole of the foreign imports came from Persia and went to Bombay. 



Exports. The EXPORTS are returned both as foreign re-exports and as Indian produce. 

 The latter of course means asafetida brought to India by land routes. 

 Of the foreign produce, 1,612 cwt. were exported in 1903-4, valued at 

 Rs. 53,440; and 1,250 cwt., valued at Rs.' 39,758, in 1906-7. Practically 

 the whole went from Bombay. Of the so-called Indian produce, 332 cwt., 

 valued at Rs. 13,548, were exported in 1903-4, but sank to 51 cwt., valued 

 at Rs. 2,043, in 1906-7. The export figures should, however, be regarded 

 as having reference to hingra, while the returns of imports are both hingra 

 and hing. [Cf. Brit, and Colon. Drugg., 1905, xlvii., 96, 120, 479, 504.] 



D.E.P., FICUS, lAnn. ; King, Ann. Roy. Bot. Gard. Calc., 1888, i., tt. 



iii., 342-62. 1-232 ; II. Br. Ind., v., 494-537 ; Talbot, List Trees, etc., 324-31 ; Gamble, 

 Man. Ind. Tinibs., 636-51 ; Prain, Beng. Plants, ii., 971-83 ; Cooke, Fl. 

 Pres. Bomb., ii., 643-55 ; Brandis, Ind. Trees, 1906, 598-610 ; URTICACEJE. 

 A genus of trees, shrubs or climbers, sometimes epiphytic, which contains 

 about 600 species. Most are tropical, and, according to Hooker, 112 are 

 Indian. They have a milky sap which contains caoutchouc, and F. 

 elastica is one of the chief sources of the India-rubber of commerce. 



Banyan F. bengalensis, Linn. ; Woodrow, Man. Gard. in Ind., 1899, 453 ; 



Tree. Ind. Gard., Jan. 4, 1900, 3 ; Rec. Bot. Surv. Ind., iii., 102 ; 1905, 279. The 



536 



