316 UMBELLIFER^. 



Asafoetida was certainly known to the Arabian and Persian geo- 

 graphers and travellers of the middle ages. One of these, Ali Istakhri, 

 a native of Istakir, the ancient Persepolis, who lived in the 10th century, 

 states^ that it produced abundantly in the desert between Sistan and 

 Makran, and is much used by the people as a condiment. The region 

 in question comprises a portion of Beluchistan. 



The geographer Edrisi,^ who wrote about the middle of the 12th 

 century, asserts that asafoetida, called in Arabic Hiltit, is collected 

 largely in a district of Afghanistan near Kaleh Bust, at the junction of 

 the Helmand with the Arghundab, a locality still producing the drug. 

 Other Arabian writers as quoted by Ibn Baytar,^ describe asafoetida in 

 terms which show it to have been well known and much valued. 



Matthaeus Platearius, who flourished in the second half of the 

 12th century, mentions asafoetida in his work on simple medicines, 

 known as Circa instans, which was held in great esteem during the 

 middle ages. It is also named a little later by Otho of Cremona,* who 

 remarks that the more foetid the drug, the better its quality. Like 

 other productions of the East, asafoetida found its way in European 

 commerce during the middle ages through the trading cities of Italy. 

 It is worthy of remark that it is much less frequently mentioned by the 

 older writers than galbanum, sagapenum and opopanax. In the 13th 

 century, the " Physicians of Myddfai," in Wales,^ considered asafoetida 

 as one of the substances which every physician " ought to know and 

 use." 



Collection — The collecting of asafoetida on the mountains about 

 Dusgun in Laristan in Persia, as described by Kampfer,^ is performed 

 thus: — 



The peasants repair to the localities where the plants abound, about 

 the middle of April, at which time the latter have ceased growing, and 

 their leaves begin to show signs of withering. The soil surrounding the 

 plant is removed to the depth of a span, so as to bare a portion of the 

 root. The leaves are then pulled off, the soil is replaced, and over it are 

 laid the leaves and other herbage, with a stone to keep them in place, 

 the whole being arranged in this way to prevent injury to the root 

 by the heat of the sun. 



About forty days later, that is towards the end of May, the people 

 return, the men being armed with knives for cutting the root, and broad 

 iron spatulas for collecting the exuded juice. Having first removed the 

 leaves and earth, a thinnish slice is taken from the fibrous crown of the 

 root, and two days later the juice is scraped from the flat cut surface. 

 The root is again sheltered, care being taken that nothing rests on it. 

 This operation is repeated twice in the course of the next few Adjys, a 

 very thin slice being removed from the root after each scraping. The 

 product got during the first cutting is called shir, i.e. milk, and is 

 thinner and more milky and less esteemed than that obtained after- 

 wards. It is not sold in its natural state, but is mixed with soft earth 



^ jBmc/j (Zer /,a?i<Zer, translated by Mordt- * Choulant, Macer Floridus, Lips. 1832. 



mann, Hamburg, 1845. 111. 159. 



^ Geographic d' Edrisi, tradviitii pa.T Ja,\i- ^ Meddyqon Myddfai. 282. 457 (see 



bei-t, i. (1836) 450. bibliographical notices at the end). 



* Sontheimer's transl. i. (1840) 84. * AmomUates Mcoticce, Lemgovise, 1712. 



535-552. 



