ASAFETIDA 21 



of which is near Gyrene, frequent allusion is made to 

 the growth of Laserpitium, and the preparation and 

 export of the gum-resin, as forming the staple article 

 of trade. The Greek and Latin writers agree in saying 

 that the silphium or laser of Gyrene was the best, but 

 from the works of Pliny we find that it was almost un- 

 obtainable in his time, relating that a single plant was 

 presented to the Emperor Nero as a curiosity. The 

 gum resin of F. alliacea is the Hing of the natives of 

 India, the other kind being seldom used by them. In 

 Sanskrit it is called Hingu, and is said to be so called 

 from its killing or overpowering all other odors. 



' 'Asafetida must have been used in India from a very 

 remote period, as the earliest Sanskrit writers mention 

 it. The plant is called Jatuka, a word derived from Jatu, 

 'gum or lac;' it is described as a fragrant plant, in 

 great repute as a condiment among vegetarians, also 

 as an antispasmodic in nervous affections; taken daily 

 it was thought to ward off attacks of malarial fever. 

 Hindu medical writers direct that it be fried before 

 being used. 



' 'Of the Mahometan writers on Materia Medica, Ibn 

 Sina mentions two kinds of Asafetida, 'good' and 

 'fetid/ but gives no description of them. Ah' Istakhri, 

 who also lived in the 10th century, states that the drug 

 is produced abundantly in the desert between Sistan 

 and Makran, and is much used by the people as a con- 

 diment. The geographer Edrisi, who wrote about the 

 middle of the 12th century, asserts that Asafetida, 

 called in Arabic Hiltit, is collected largely in Western 

 Afganistan. Haji Zein the druggist, in the 14th century, 

 tells us that the two kinds of asafetida are produced by 

 two different plants, the black and the white Anjudan, 



