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FERULA ASSAFCETIDA. 
composed of various shining little lumps or grains, some of which 
are white, others of a brown or reddish colour, and some of a violet 
hue. Those masses are esteemed the best which are clear, of a pale 
reddish colour, and variegated with a great number of fine white 
tears. Assafostida has a strong, fetid, and to most persons a dis- 
agreeable odour, and a bitter, subacid taste ; it becomes brittle by 
exposure to the air, but is not readily reduced to powder. It is 
composed chiefly of gum, resin, and essential oil, the latter of which 
is obtained by distillation, either with water or alcohol. Its odour 
and taste reside in the resin and oil, which are readily dissolved by 
ether and alcohol ; hence the alcoholic and ethereal tinctures com- 
bine the virtues of this drug, the former dissolving three parts out 
of four. By trituration with water Assafcetida forms an opaque 
milky solution, about 60 per cent, being readily dissolved, which 
is chiefly extractive matter. 
Medical Properties and Uses. Assafcetida is stimulant, 
expectorant, and antispasmodic, it is considered a more efficacious 
medicine than any of the other fetid gums ; hence it has been much 
employed in hysteria, hypochondriasis, flatulent colics, tympanites, 
dyspepsia, and many nervous disorders ; also as an anthelmintic, and 
as an emmenagogue, and for those peculiar convulsive and spa^ 
modic symptoms which so often recur in the latter disease, it fre- 
quently proves the most efficacious remedy we possess. When we 
wish it to act immediately as an antispasmodic, it should be given 
in a fluid form, as that of the diluted tincture ; when inflammatory 
symptoms are present, it should be used with caution, owing to its 
stimulant qualities, and it may be conveniently combined with nitre 
or antimonials according to the state of the patient. As a topical 
remedy it is applied in the form of plaster to promote suppuration 
in indolent tumours, and also in the form of enema in convulsions 
attending dentition, worms, flatulent colic, &c. Assafcetida may be 
taken in doses of from five to twenty grains, two, three, or more 
times a day. 
Ofl^. The Gum-resin. 
Oflf. Pp. Enema Fcetida, D. 
Mistura Assafoetidae, L. D. 
Tinctura Assafoetidae, L. E. D. 
Pilulze Assafoetidae Composite, E., 
it also enters into the combination of many other compound 
medicines. 
