39^ 
Adulterated  Asafetida. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I      August,  1902. 
per  cent,  from  this  standard  in  the  case  of  asafetida ;  that  is,  the 
Treasury  Department  is  supposed  to  reject  and  refuse  importation 
to  all  asafetida  which  contains  less  than  50  per  cent,  of  alcohol- 
solubje  material. 
In  the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy,  for  March,  1901,  M.  I. 
Wilbert  published  an  article  on  this  same  subject,  of  the  quality  of 
commercial  asafetida,  in  which  he  showed  that  most  of  the  samples 
examined  were  far  below  even  50  per  cent.,  and  that  price  was  no 
indication  whatever  of  quality;  the  price  of  the  best  sample  he 
examined  being  somewhat  less  than  the  price  of  the  poorest  sample. 
During  the  past  spring  the  author  had  occasion  to  examine  samples 
of  asafetida  which  were  taken  from  46  cases,  which  was  held  up  by 
the  custom  authorities  as  being  below  the  Treasury  requirements. 
The  custom  authorities  referred  to  are  those  of  the  port  of  Philadel- 
phia. The  cases  were  carefully  sampled  and  the  samples  thoroughly 
mixed.  This  material  was  of  prime  appearance  and  would  pass 
anywhere  for  first-class  asafetida ;  but  upon  estimating  the  alcohol- 
soluble  material  it  was  found  to  fall  below  33  per  cent. 
In  consequence  of  this  deficiency  in  quality,  the  entire  lot  was  pre- 
vented from  coming  into  this  port  and  was  sent  back  to  Europe  to 
be  sold  there.  Other  samples  were  obtained,  and  a  selection  made 
from  them,  when  it  was  found  that  the  best-appearing  sample  sub- 
mitted showed  a  percentage  of  only  30  per  cent,  alcohol-soluble 
material.  The  only  specimen  which  has  come  under  the  author's 
notice  recently,  which  has  exceeded  50  per  cent,  soluble  materia^ 
was  a  small  lot  which  had  been  held  by  the  seller  for  at  least  a  dozen 
years,  which  was  badly  discolored  from  having  been  through  a  fire, 
and  which  had  nothing  to  do  at  all  with  the  present  market 
supply. 
Investigations  are  being  made  now,  which  cannot  be  reported  at 
this  time,  regarding  the  status  of  all  the  asafetida  on  the  American 
market  at  the  present  time.  The  question  before  the  author's  mind 
at  the  present  moment  is :  How  does  the  poor  asafetida  get  into  the 
New  York  and  other  markets,  if  the  custom  authorities  of  the  port 
of  Philadelphia  are  so  strict  as  to  reject  it  when  below  50  per  cent, 
and  when  one  can  turn  round  and  purchase  elsewhere  material 
which  contains  less  soluble  matter  than  that  rejected  in  Philadelphia  ? 
Surely  there  is  a  laxity  somewhere  in  enforcing  the  Custom  House 
regulations  which  should  be  looked  after. 
