Asafœtida, or ASSAFÆTIDA (i.e. Fetid Asa or Assa), is a gum-resin, which has been supposed to be identical with the exuded juice of the Silphion of Dioscorides, so highly esteemed among the Greek physicians. Its name is derived from the Persian word azā, 'mastic.' The drug is procured by drying the milky juice which flows from the root of the plant Ferula (Narthex) asafœtida. The root of the asafœtida plant is long, and generally undivided; white inside, but having a black covering; and contains in its interior a quantity of juice of an overpowering odour, which much resembles that of garlic. Ferula or Narthex asafœtida has its radical leaves tripartite, their segments bipinnatifid, and nearly two feet in length.
Asafœtida is prepared in the dry southern provinces of Persia, but chiefly in Khorassan and
Afghanistan, and also to the north of the Hindu Kush range of mountains. About April, the root-leaves are taken away, and the root itself is more or less exposed by removal of the soil from about it. After a lapse of six weeks, a slice is cut horizontally from its summit, this operation being repeated at intervals of a few days till the root is exhausted, and a thick white juice exudes, the smell of which even exceeds in strength that of the drug when dry. The drug is sometimes met with in the market in the form of tears, but more frequently in lumps, which are made up of irregularly shaped tears, agglutinated together by a softer substance.
Ferula asafœtida.
Asafœtida is used in medicine, and possesses stimulant and anti-spasmodic properties. When taken internally, it undergoes absorption, and may be detected in almost every secretion of the body, as the saliva, breath, and urine. According to the analysis of Pelletier, asafœtida is composed of the following substances: resin, 65 parts; volatile oil, 3.6; gum, 19.44; bassorin, 11.66; various salts, .30. In many parts of the East, this drug is used as a condiment, in which respect it seems to take the place of the garlic of some European nations.