Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/710

630 an alliaceous taste, which galbanum does not possess. He suggests that it may possibly afford sagapenum," Ph. J. Jan. 5, 1889, p. 534.

When discussing the hing and hingra, it seems probable that it would be more correct to assign these to groups of species rather than to say that they. were each the product of one species. Indeed it would appear that the part of the plant from whence procured, the season of the year when collected, the methods, preparation and degrees and materials of adulteration, exercise considerable influence on the quality and flavour of the resulting drugs. It is, however, convenient to group the commercial resinous products of Ferula under three chief species: — 1. F. alliacea, Boiss, 2. F. foetida, Regel, 3. F. galbaniflua, Boiss and Buhse.

F. alliacea, Boiss. Hing. This might be spoken of as the edible form. The GUM-RESIN is obtained by wounding the upper part of the root, from which a small quantity of a fine gum escapes and is collected. The living root is then sliced daily, or every two or three days, with the exudation adhering to it, till exhausted. The whole mass, consisting of alternate layers of root and gum-resin, is then packed in a skin. As found in the market, the resin consists of a blackish- brown, brittle mass of extremely fetid odour, unadulterated with earth or gypsum, but always with slices of the root. In Bombay it is sometimes adulterated by the addition of gum-arabic, and the cheaper sorts contain an undue proportion of root. Adulteration with sliced potato also takes place.

The resinous mass contains an abundant essential oil which differs from that of hingra in having a reddish hue, a higher specific gravity, and a stronger rotatory power. An alcoholic tincture is not precipitated by acetate of lead, nor is the sulphuric-acid solution fluorescent.

{{smaller|F. fœtida, Regel. Maynard and Prain, on the Botany of Baluch- Afghan Boundary Commission of 1896 {Rec. Bot. Surv. Ind.,i., 130— 1), furnish interesting details of the collections of the commercial article on the hills between Samuli and Robat. Asafetida, they observe, affects bare rocky hillsides. It is the plant or at least one of the plants, that people from Kandahar yearly visit the Koh-i-Sultan to collect. Sir Arthur H. McMahon described the collection of the gum from personal observation. The heads are cut down to within one or two inches of the ground. The cut ends are then covered with a little dry earth in order, the collectors say, to keep the wind off. After twenty hours the people collect what has exuded and cut the stalk down another eighth of an inch. But the milk is not allowed to dry in the sun ; to obviate this the collectors build small stone traps, open at one side, over each plant, in order to keep off the sun's rays. The juice when partly dried is mixed with some kind of earth, like fuller's-earth ; this is merely to increase the weight, and not with any idea of improving the quality. Doubtless the precautions taken to prevent drying are mainly with a view to facilitate this subsequent adulteration.}}

Asafetida consists of resin, gum and essential oil in varying proportions, but the resin generally amounts to more than one-half. It is partly soluble