22 PHABMACOPEIAL DRUGS 



and that the latter produces the kind known as 'good.' 

 Mir Muhammad Mumin of Shiraz, who wrote in the 

 17th century, says that 'good' asafetida has a reddish 

 color, and is produced by a plant vulgarly known as 

 cap-leaf, while the other has a disagreeable odor like a 

 leek, and is known as 'stink-finger.' In describing 

 the medicinal properties of the drug, the Mahometan 

 physicians closely follow Dioscorides. 



"The flowering stems of the asafetida plants are eaten 

 as a vegetable, as stated by Pliny. Aitchison, who 

 traveled hi Eastern Persia in 1884-5, notices their use 

 for this purpose, and Dr. Peters forwarded to us the 

 flowering stem of F. fetida, Regel, which he had pur- 

 chased in the bazar at Quetta. 



"Guibourt (1850) was the first European writer to 

 point out the difference between the Asafetida of India 

 known as Hing, and that of the European Pharma- 

 copeias called in India Hingra. Vigier, 1869, calls Hing 

 Asafetida nauseeuse. To Mr. Ardeshir Mehrban, a 

 merchant of Yezd, we are indebted for most of the fol- 

 lowing particulars regarding the source of this drug. 

 Mr. Ardeshir, having himself visited the hills where the 

 plant grows, was able to speak from personal observa- 

 tion. He states that the Asafetida plant grows wild on 

 the hills of Khorasan, in very stony ground. The hill 

 men collect the gum-resin, taking an advance from the 

 merchants. The time for collecting it is in the spring. 

 The plant is not nearly as large as that which produces 

 the asafetida of European commerce, the diameter at 

 the crown of the root being seldom more than two 

 inches. The collectors protect each plant by building 

 a small cairn of stones round it; they also remove the 

 soil from the upper portion of the root, making a kind 



