3  20  Asafcetidas  of  the  Bombay  Market.  {^"')^^y%!^,^''^- 
ASAFCETIDAS  OF  THE  BOMBAY  MARKET. 
BY  W.  DYMOCK. 
Professor  of  Materia  Medica,  Bombay. 
Three  distinct  kinds  of  asafoetida  are  found  in  the  Bombay  drug 
market,  and  are  known  to  dealers  as  Abushaheree  Hing,  Kandaharee 
Hing,  and  Hingra. 
Of  each  of  these  drugs  numerous  qualities,  more  or  less  mixed  or 
adulterated,  are  met  with,  but  I  purpose  first  to  notice  the  unadulterated 
varieties  only. 
Abushaheree  Hing  is  brought  from  the  Persian  Gulf  ports,  princi- 
pally from  Abushaher  and  Bunder  Abbas  ;  it  is  produced  in  Khorasan 
and  Kirman  by  the  Ferula  alUacea  of  Boissier. 
Specimens  of  the  plant  with  the  gum  resin  attached,  have  been  sup- 
plied to  me  through  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Ardeshir  Mihrban,  of  Yezd, 
and  these  specimens,  which  show  both  flowers  and  fruit,  have,  with 
plenty  of  mature  seed,  been  forwarded  to  Mr.  D.  Hanbury,  who  has 
kindly  taken  the  trouble  of  submitting  them  to  Boissier,  and  has  also 
sent  packets  of  seed  to  the  botanical  gardens  of  Kew,  Edinburgh,  Ox- 
ford, Paris,  St.  Petersburg,  Berne,  Strassburg,  Florence,  Pisa,  Naples, 
Palermo,  Atheos,  and  to  botanical  friends  on  the  Mediterranean  coast, 
in  South  Africa,  and  a  few  other  places. 
The  specimens  sent  to  Mr.  Hanbury  were  collected  near  Yezd  and 
Kirman,  and  were  from  three  and  a  half  to  four  feet  in  height,  and  the 
roots  of  some  young  plants  which  had  never  flowered  were  quite  fresh 
when  they  arrived  in  Bombay,  and  exuded  a  thick  milk  when  cut,  which 
after  a  day  or  two  became  brown  and  translucent. 
It  is  this  drug  alone  which  appears  in  the  Bombay  Custom  returns 
as  Hing  or  asafoetida  ;  all  other  kinds  pass  under  the  name  of  Hingra. 
Hing  arrives  here  either  in  skins  sewn  up  so  as  to  form  a  flat,  oblong 
package,  or  in  wooden  boxes.  It  varies  in  appearance  with  age ;  when 
quite  fresh  it  is  soft  and  of  the  consistence  of  treacle,  of  a  dull  olive 
brown  color,  and  purely  garlic  odor-,  it  is  mixed  with  about  an  equal  bulk 
of  slices  of  the  root.  After  having  been  kept  some  time  the  gum  resin 
becomes  hard  and  translucent,  and  of  a  yellowish-brown  color. 
In' 1872-73,  3367  cwts.  of  this  drug  were  imported  from  the  Per- 
sian Gulf. 
The  method  of  collection  has  been  described  to  me  by  Mr.  Godrez 
Mihrban,  of  Yezd,  and  resembles  the  method  of  collecting  asafoetida, 
