part 24

.

[1197] Which we cannot find on any map.

[1198] Kämpfer figures his plant with about 6 umbels on a stalk, while _Scorodosma_, as represented by Borszczow, has at least 25.

Asafœtida was certainly known to the Arabian and Persian geographers 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[1199] 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,[1200] who wrote about the middle of the 12th century, asserts that asafœtida, 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,[1201] describe asafœtida in terms which show it to have been well known and much valued.

Matthæus Platearius, who flourished in the second half of the 12th century, mentions asafœtida 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,[1202] who remarks that the more fœtid the drug, the better its quality. Like other productions of the East, asafœtida 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,[1203] considered asafœtida as one of the substances which every physician “ought to know and use.”

=Collection=—The collecting of asafœtida on the mountains about Dusgun in Laristan in Persia, as described by Kämpfer,[1204] 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.

[1199] _Buch der Länder_, translated by Mordtmann, Hamburg, 1845. 111.

[1200] _Géographie d’Edrisi_, traduite par Jaubert, i. (1836) 450.

[1201] Sontheimer’s transl. i. (1840) 84.

[1202] Choulant, _Macer Floridus_, Lips. 1832. 159.

[1203] _Meddygon Myddfai._ 282. 457 (see bibliographical notices at the end).

[1204] _Amœnitates Exoticæ_, Lemgoviæ, 1712. 535-552.

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 days, a very thin slice being removed from the root after each scraping. The product got during the first cutting is called _shīr_, i.e. _milk_, and is thinner and more milky and less esteemed than that obtained afterwards. It is not sold in its natural state, but is mixed with soft earth (_terra limosa_) which is added to the extent of an equal, or even double, weight of the gum-resin, according to the softness of the latter.

After the last cutting, the roots are allowed to rest 8 or 10 days, when a thicker exudation called _pispaz_, more esteemed than the first, is obtained by a similar process carried on at intervals during June and July, or even later, until the root is quite exhausted.

The only recent account of the production of asafœtida that we have met with, is that of Staff-surgeon H. W. Bellew, who witnessed the collection of the drug in 1857 in the neighbourhood of Kandahar.[1205] The frail withered stem of the previous year with the cluster of newly-sprouted leaves, is cut away from the top of the root, around which a trench of 6 inches wide and as many deep, is dug in the earth. Several deep incisions are now made in the upper part of the root, and this operation is repeated every 3 or 4 days as the sap continues to exude, which goes on for a week or two according to the strength of the plant. The juice collects in tears about the top of the root, or when very abundant flows into the hollow around it. In all cases as soon as incisions are made, the root is covered with a bundle of loose twigs or herbs, or even with a heap of stones, to protect it from the drying effects of the sun. The quantity of gum-resin obtained is variable; some roots yield scarcely half an ounce, others as much as two pounds. Some of the roots are no larger than a carrot, others attain the thickness of a man’s leg. The drug is said to be mostly adulterated before it leaves the country, by admixture of powdered gypsum or flour. The finest sort, which is generally sold pure, is obtained solely “from the node or leaf-bud in the centre of the root-head.” At Kandahar, the price of this superior drug is equivalent to from 2_s._ 8_d._ to 4_s._ 8_d._ per lb, while the ordinary sort is worth but from 1_s._ to 2_s._

During a journey from North-western India to Teheran in Persia, through Beluchistan and Afghanistan, performed in the spring of 1872, the same traveller observed the asafœtida plant in great abundance on many of the elevated undulating pasture-covered plains and hills of Afghanistan, and of the Persian province of Khorassan. He states that the plant is of two kinds, the one called _Kamá-i-gawí_ which is grazed by cattle and used as a potherb, and the other known as _Kamá-i-angúza_ which affords the gum-resin of commerce. The collecting of this last is almost exclusively in the hands of the western people of the Kákarr tribe, one of the most numerous and powerful of the Afghan clans, who, when thus occupied, spread their camps over the plains of Kandahar to the confines of Herat.[1206]

Wood, in his journey to the source of the Oxus, found asafœtida to be largely produced in a district to the north of this, namely the mountains around Saigan or Sykan (lat. 35° 10, long. 67° 40), where, says he, the land affording the plant is as regularly apportioned out and as carefully guarded as the cornfields on the plain.[1207]

[1205] _Journal of a Mission to Afghanistan_, Lond. 1862. 270.

[1206] Bellew, _From the Indus to the Tigris_, London. 1874. 101. 102. 286. 321. &c.

[1207] Wood, _Journey to the Source of the River Oxus_, new ed. 1872, 131.

=Description=—The best asafœtida is that consisting chiefly of slightly or not agglutinated tears. This is the _Kandahari-Hing_ of the Bombay market, which is not always to be met with in Bombay, and even there is only used by wealthy people as a condiment. It is not exported to Europe. The best sort shipped to Europe is the _Anguzeh-i-Lari_, coming from Laristan by way of Afghanistan and the Bolan Pass to Bombay. It shows agglutinated tears, or when freshly imported, it forms a clammy yet hard yellowish-grey mass, in which opaque, white or yellowish milky tears, sometimes an inch or two long, are more or less abundant.

Sometimes asafœtida is imported as a fluid honey-like mass, apparently pure. We presume that such is that of the first gathering, which Kämpfer says is called _milk_. The drug is often adulterated with earthy matter which renders it very ponderous; it must be granted that an addition of such matters may often be necessary in order to enable the drug to be transported. This earthy or stony asafœtida constitutes at Bombay a distinct article of commerce under the name of _Hingra_.

By exposure to air, asafœtida acquires a bright pink and then a brown hue. The perfectly pure tears display when fractured a conchoidal surface, which changes from milky white to purplish pink in the course of some hours. If a tear is touched with nitric acid sp. gr. 1·2, it assumes for a short time a fine green colour.

When asafœtida is rubbed in a mortar with oil of vitriol, then diluted with water and neutralized, the slightly coloured solution exhibits a bluish fluorescence. The same will be observed, to some extent, if tears of the drug are immersed in water and a little ammonia is added. The tears of asafœtida when warmed become adhesive, but by cold are rendered so brittle that they may be powdered. With water they easily form a white emulsion.

The drug has a powerful and persistent alliaceous odour and a bitter acrid alliaceous taste.

=Chemical Composition=—Asafœtida consists of resin, gum and essential oil, in varying proportions, but the resin generally amounting to more than one-half.

As to the oil, we have repeatedly obtained from 6 to 9 per cent. by distilling it from common copper stills. It is light yellow, has a repulsive, very pungent odour of asafœtida, tastes at first mild, then irritating, but does not stimulate like oil of mustard when applied to the skin. It is neutral, but after exposure to the air acquires an acid reaction and different odour; it evolves sulphuretted hydrogen. In the fresh state, the oil is free from oxygen; it begins to boil at 135° to 140° C., but with continued evolution of hydrogen sulphide, so that we did not succeed in preparing it of constant composition, the amount of sulphur varying from 20 to 25 per cent. We found it to have a sp. gr. of 0·951 at 25°, and a strong dextrogyrate power. If one drop of it is allowed to float on water it assumes a fine violet hue by vapours of bromine.

The essential oil of asafœtida submitted to fractional distillation yielded us, at 300°, a considerable proportion of a most _beautifully blue coloured_ oil. By very cautiously oxidizing the crude oil, we obtained a small amount of extremely deliquescent crystals of a sulphonic acid. Sodium or potassium decomposes the oil with evolution of gas, forming potassium sulphide; the residual oil is found to have the odour of cinnamon.

The resin of asafœtida is not wholly soluble in ether or in chloroform, but dissolves with decomposition in warm concentrated nitric acid. It contains a little _Ferulaic Acid_,

C₆H₃(OCH₃)CH·CH·COOH, (OH )

discovered by Hlasiwetz and Barth in 1866, crystallizing in iridescent needles soluble in boiling water; it is homologous with _Eugetic Acid_,

C₆H₂(OCH₃)COOH, (OH )CH·CH·CH₃,

which is to be obtained by adding CO₂ to the molecule of eugenol (page 284).

Ferulaic acid may be obtained from vanillin,

{OCH₃ C₆H₃ {OH (see article Vanilla). {CHO

Fused with potash, ferulaic acid yields oxalic and carbonic acids, several acids of the fatty series, and protocatechuic acid. The resin itself treated in like manner after it has been previously freed from gum, yields resorcin; and by dry distillation, oils of a green, blue, violet or red tint, besides about ¼ per cent. of _Umbelliferone_, C₉H₆O₃.

The mucilaginous matter of asafœtida consists of a smaller part soluble in water and an insoluble portion. The former yields a neutral solution which is not precipitated by neutral acetate of lead. The insoluble

## part is readily dissolved by caustic lye and again separates on

addition of acids.

=Commerce=—The drug is at the present day produced exclusively in Afghanistan. Much of it is shipped in the Persian Gulf for Bombay, whence it is conveyed to Europe; it is also brought into India by way of Peshawur, and by the Bolan pass in Beluchistan.

In the year 1872-73, there were imported into Bombay by sea, chiefly from the Persian Gulf, 3367 cwt. of asafœtida, and 4780 cwt. of the impure form of the drug called _Hingra_. The value of the latter is scarcely a fifth that of the genuine kind. The export of asafœtida from Bombay to Europe is very small in comparison with the shipments to other ports of India.

=Uses=—Asafœtida is reputed stimulant and antispasmodic. It is in great demand on the Continent, but is little employed in Great Britain. Among the Mahommedan as well as Hindu population of India, it is generally used as a condiment, and is eaten especially with the various pulses known as _dāl_. In regions where the plant grows, the fresh leaves are cooked as an article of diet.

=Adulteration=—The systematic adulteration, chiefly with earthy matter already pointed out, may be estimated by exhausting the drug with alcohol and incinerating the residue.

Allied Substances.

_Hing from Abushahir_, also in Bombay simply called _Hing_.

Among the natives of Bombay, a peculiar form of asafœtida is in use that commands a much higher price than those just described; it is also the only kind admitted there in the government sanitary establishmente. This is the _Abushaheree Hing_, imported from Abushir (Bender Bushehr) and Bender Abassi on the Persian Gulf. It is the product of _Ferula alliacea_ Boiss.[1208] (_F. Asafœtida_ Boiss. et Buhse, non Linn.) discovered in 1850 by Buhse, and observed in 1858-59 by Bunge in many places in Persia. This Hing is collected near Yezd in Khorassan, and also in the province of Kerman, the plant being known as _angúza_, the same name that is applied to _Scorodosma_.

Abushaheree Hing is never brought into European trade.[1209] It forms an almost blackish brown, originally _translucent_, brittle mass, of extremely fœtid alliaceous odour, containing many pieces of the stem with no admixture of earth. Guibourt, by whom it was first noticed,[1210] was convinced that it had not been obtained from the root, but had been _cut from the stem_. He remarks that Theophrastus alludes to asafœtida (as he terms the _Silphium_[1211] of this author) as being of two kinds,—the one of the stem, the other of the root; and thinks the former may be the sort under notice. Vigier,[1212] who calls it _Asafœtida nauséeux_, found it to contain in 100 parts, of resin and essential oil 37·5, and gum 23·7.

We find the odour of the Hing much more repulsive than that of common Asafœtida. The former yields an abundance of essential oil, which differs by its reddish hue from that of asafœtida. The oil of Hing, as distilled by one of us (1877) has also a higher specific gravity, namely, 1·02 at 25° C. We find also its rotatory power stronger; it deviated 38°·8 to the right, when examined in a column of 100 millimetres in length. The oil of common asafœtida deviated 13°·5 under the same conditions.

By gently warming the Abushaheree Hing with concentrated hydrochloric acid, about 1·12 sp. gr., it displays simply a dingy brown hue. By shaking it with water and a little ammonia no fluorescence is produced. In all these respects there is consequently a well-marked difference between the drug under examination and common asafœtida.

_F. teterrima_ Kar. et Kir., a plant of Soungaria, is likewise remarkable for its intense alliaceous smell; but the plant is not known as the source of any commercial product.[1213]

GALBANUM.

_Gummi-resina Galbanum_; _Galbanum_; F. _Galbanum_; G. _Mutterharz_.

=Botanical Origin=—The uncertainty that exist as to the plants which furnish asafœtida, hangs over those which produce the nearly allied drug _Galbanum_. Judging from the characters of the latter, it can scarcely be doubted that it is yielded by umbelliferous plants of at least two species, which are probably the following:[1214]—

[1208] _Flora Orientalis_, ii. (1872) 995.

[1209] A large specimen of it was kindly presented to one of us (H.) by Mr. D. S. Kemp of Bombay. We have also examined the same drug in the Indian Museum, and further received good specimens by the kindness of Professor Dymock. See his notes _Pharm. Journ._ v. (1875) 103, and viii. (1877) 103.

[1210] _Hist. des Drogues_, iii. (1850) 223.

[1211] _Hist. Plantarum_, 1. vi. c. 3.

[1212] _Gommes-résines des Ombellifères_ (thèse), Paris, 1869. 32.

[1213] Borszczow, _op. cit._ 13-14.

[1214] The following in addition have at various times been supposed to afford galbanum:—_Ferulago galbanifera_ Koch, a native of the Mediterranean region and Southern Russia; _Opoidia galbanifera_ Lindl., a Persian plant of doubtful genus; _Bubon Galbanum_ L., a shrubby umbellifer of South Africa.

1. _Ferula galbaniflua_ Boiss. et Buhse,[1215]—a plant with a tall, solid stem, 4 to 5 feet high, greyish, tomentose leaves, and thin flat fruits, 5 to 6 lines long, 2 to 3 broad, discovered in 1848 at the foot of Demawend in Northern Persia, and on the slopes of the same mountain at 4,000 to 8,000 feet, also on the mountains near Kushkäk and Churchurä (Jajarúd?). Bunge collected the same plant at Subzawar. Buhse says that the inhabitants of the district of Demawend collect the gum-resin of this plant which is _Galbanum_; the tears which exude spontaneously from the stem, especially on its lower part and about the bases of the leaves, are at first milk-white, but become yellow by exposure to light and air. It is not the practice, so far as he observed, to wound the plant for the purpose of causing the juice to exude more freely, nor is the gathering of the gum in this district any special object of industry.[1216] The plant is called in Persian _Khassuih_, and the Mazanderan dialect _Boridsheh_.

2. _F. rubricaulis_ Boiss.[1217] (_F. erubescens_ Boiss. ex parte, Aucher _exsicc._ n. 4614, Kotschy n. 666).—This plant was collected by Kotschy in gorges of the Kuh Dinar range in Southern Persia, and probably by Aucher-Eloy on the mountain of Dalmkuh in Northern Persia. Borszczow,[1218] who regards it as the same as the preceding (though Boissier[1219] places it in a different section of the genus), says, on the authority of Buhse, that it occurs locally throughout the whole of Northern Persia, is found in plenty on the slopes of Elwund near Hamadan, here and there on the edge of the great central salt-desert of Persia, on the mountains near Subzawar, between Ghurian and Kháf, west of Herat, and on the desert plateau west of Kháf. He states, though not from personal observation, that its gum-resin, which constitutes _Persian Galbanum_, is collected for commercial purposes around Hamadan. _F. rubricaulis_ Boiss. has been beautifully figured by Berg[1220] under the name of _F. erubescens_.

=History=—Galbanum, in Hebrew _Chelbenah_, was an ingredient of the incense used in the worship of the ancient Israelites,[1221] and is mentioned by the earliest writers on medicine as Hippocrates and Theophrastus.[1222] Dioscorides states it to be the juice of a _Narthex_ growing in Syria, and describes its characters, and the method of purifying it by hot water exactly as followed in modern times. We find it mentioned in the 2nd century among the drugs on which duty was levied at the Roman custom-house at Alexandria.[1223] Under the name of _Kinnah_ it was well known to the Arabians, and through them to the physicians of the school of Salerno.

[1215] _Aufzählung der in einer Reise durch Transkaukasien und Persien gesammelten Pflanzen._—_Nouv. Mém. de la Soc. imp. des Nat. de Moscou_, xii. (1860) 99.—Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, _Med. Plants_,