Spec. Plant. Willd. i. 1411. Cl. 5. Ord.2. Pentandria Digynia. Nat. ord. Umbelliferae. G. 539. Fruit oval, compressed, plane, three streaks on each side. Species 11. F. Assafoetida.1 Assafoetida. Koempfer, Amamitates

Exoticae, 535. t.536, icon. Med. Dot. 3d edit. 1. p. 111. t.43. Officinal. Assafoetida, Lond. Assafoetidae gummi-resina,

Edin. Dub. Assafoetida.

Syn. Assafoetida (F.), Stinkender Asand (G.), Assafetida (I.) Asafetida (S.), Perungyum ( Tam.), Ingarva ( Tal.), Angoo (Malay), Ungoozeh (Pers.), Dui-velsdreck (Dutch), Dyrelsdraek (Dan.), Dyfvelstrack (Swed.), Hilteet (Arab.), Hing (H.), Hingoo (San.), Jo-eul (Chinese).

This species of ferula is a native of the couth of Persia, chiefly growing on the mountains in the provinces of Khora-saan and Laar, where it is named hingish. The root is perennial, tapering, and ponderous; when fully grown, the size of a man's leg, covered with a blackish-coloured bark, and near the top beset with strong rigid fibres. The internal substance is fleshy, white, and abounds with a thick, very foetid milky juice. The stem is round, smooth, and furnished with

Dioscoridis. The plant described and figured by Dr. Hope of Edinburgh, in the 75th volume of the Philosophical Transactions, as that which yields the officinal assafoetida, is the Ferula Persica of Willdenow, and a native of the north of Persia. Some suppose that the Ferula Persica yields the sagapeniim. The name Asa (not Assa) foetida is said to have been imposed by the monks of the school of Salcrnum. 8 leafless sheaths; it rises erect to the height of nine feet, and is about seven inches in circumference at the base; surrounded with six or seven radical leaves, nearly two feet long, bipinnate, with alternate pinnules, smooth, sinuated, lobed, or lanceolate; of a deep green colour, and foetid odour. The flowers are in plano-convex, terminal) compound umbels; the seeds oval, flat, foliaceous, of a reddish brown colour, rough, with three longitudinal lines; and have a porraceous odour, and a sharp bitter taste.

When the root is four years old, it is fit to yield the assafoetida, which is procured in the following manner:-At the season when the stem and leaves begin to decay, they are twisted off from the root, which is then exposed by digging away the earth that surrounds it. It is left in this state screened from the sun for forty days; then the top is cut off transversely, and after forty-eight hours the juice which has exuded is scraped off, and another transverse section is made. This operation is repeated three successive times, and then the root is allowed to remain untouched for eight or ten days, before another section is made. The root perishes after it is exhausted of the juice. The juice collected from a number of roots is put together and dried in the sun.

Assafoetida is brought into this country packed in cases, mats, and casks; that in the cases proving generally the best. It is in irregular masses, adhering to each other, externally of a brownish yellow colour, and containing many little shining tears of a* whitish, reddish, or violet hue. The best is clear, and of a pale reddish colour, contains many of the white tears, and has the odour very strong.

Qualities.-Assafoetida has a strong, very disagreeable, alliaceous, foetid odour, and a bitter subacrid taste; but these qualities, particularly the odour, on which much of the efficacy of the drug depends, are injured by keeping.1 It becomes brittle by exposure to the air; but is not easily reduced to powder, unless it be triturated with carbonate of ammonia. Its specific gravity is 1.327. It yields all its virtues to ether and to alcohol. It is diffused by trituration in water, forming a milky opaque mixture. The ethereal tincture, when evaporated on water, leaves a thick pellicle of brown, foetid resin, and gives the water a milky appearance. In distillation, either with water or with alcohol, assafoetida yields an essential oil, on which its odour depends. Its components, according to Tromsdorff, are a volatile light oil, a heavy oil, a brown resin, and a bitter nauseous extractive, in which the alliaceous odour of the drug resides: I have obtained gum 60, resin 30, and essential oil 10 parts, in 100; but Brugnatelli affirms that the part which has been regarded as gum is extractive.1 Pelletier makes its components to be-resin 65.00, gum 19.44, bassorine 11.65, volatile oil 3.60, supermalate of lime and loss 0.30 = 100.

1 Kcempfer says:-"Affirmare ausim drachmam unam, recens effusam, majorem spargere foetorem quam centum libras vetustioris, quem siccum vennu-dant aromatarii nostrates."-Amoen. Exotica, p. 535.

Medical properties and uses.-This gum resin is an excitant, antispasmodic, expectorant, emmenagogue, and anthelmintic. It was used by Hippocrates under the name of Laserpitium. It was also employed by Dioscorides, chiefly as an expectorant.2 It is more efficacious than any of the other foetid gums, producing its effects in a shorter space of time: and is therefore beneficially given as an antispasmodic in cases of hysteria, hypochondriasis, dyspepsia, flatulent colic, the flatulence of hypochondriasis, tympanitis, and in nervous diseases: its expectorant powers have been found useful in asthma and hooping-cough; and it ranks high as a remedy in chlorotic affections. We are informed that in India it is a successful native specific against the Guinea3 worm. Its use is contra-indicated when the inflammatory diathesis is present; and, owing to its stimulant quality, it is often combined with anti-monials and nitre. It is used locally, in the form of enema, in worm cases, flatulent colic, and in the convulsions attending dentition; and sometimes it is applied as a plaster for discussing tumours.

The dose is from grs. v. to Э j. formed into pills, or diffused in water. Owing to its nauseous character it is best administered in the form of pills. Six drachms of assafoetida beaten with 3ss. of camphor forms a proper mass for a plaster.

Officinal preparations.-Mistura Assafoetidœ, L. D. Tinct. Assa-foetidœ, L. E.D. Spiritus Ammoniœ foetidus, L.D. Tinct. Castorei comp., E. D. Pilulœ Assafœtidœ; compositœ, E.. Pilulœ Aloes et Assafoetidœ, E. Pil. Galbani comp., L. Enema foetidum, D.