Asafetida 223
where there was a temple of Ammon. Dioscoides, the Greek herbalist, first described
this plant scientifically and named it ammoniacoon. The present botanical name,
Doremia ammoniacum is derived accordingly. It is available in the bazaars of Mumbai,
India, and sold elsewhere as Bombay Sambal. Dormia ammoniacum is a shrub and
the gum is found on its flowering and fruiting branches.
12.1.2 Forms of asafetida
Asafetida is available commercially in three forms, tears, mass and paste. Tears
constitute the purest form of resin and are round and flattened, 5–30 mm in diameter
and greyish or dull yellow in colour. There are two types of tears, those that retain
their original pale colour for years and those that gradually become dark or yellowish
brown. Mass asafetida is the common commercial form. It comprises tears agglutinated
into a more or less uniform mass, often mixed with fragments of root, soil, etc. Paste
also contains extraneous matter (Anon. 1991).
12.1.3 Varieties of asafetida
There are many varieties of asafetida, and they come under different classifications
and are priced differently. The two major varieties are Hing and Hingra. Hingra is
inferior to Hing, which is richer in odour and more desirable. Hingra is heterogeneous
in colour and consistency. Hing is classified into Irani Hing and Pathani Hing,
according to the country of origin, the former being produced in Iran and the latter in
Afghanistan. Irani Hing contains woody residues but Pathani Hing is comparatively
free from wood. Hadda is the most expensive variety of Pathani Hing and has the
strongest odour. Irani Hing has two varieties based on the taste, sweet and bitter.
Sweet Irani Hing is collected from the horizontal cutting of the stem and is brown in
colour. The Irani Hing obtained from the root is transparent and it is gathered by
making injuries on the root. Bitter Irani Hing is conventionally produced in Iran
(Anon. 1991).
The two most commonly sold and broadly recognized groups of asafetida are the
white or pale variety and the dark or black variety. The former is soluble in water
while the latter is soluble in oil. The chemical composition of both these types of
asafetida is almost the same, because asafetida is basically only an oleogum. But,
where the gum portion preponderates, as in Hing, it is water-soluble and where the
resin portion preponderates, as in Hingra, it is oil-soluble. The constituents to which
asafetida owes its characteristic ordour reside in the oil. There are two groups of
compounds in the oil, one group belongs to the ferulic esters and the other, which is
more important, is a volatile oil fraction consisting of different sulphur compounds,
some of which are similar to those found in garlic and onion. The major difference
in their origin is that Hingra is obtained from F. foetida while Hing is obtained from
F. asafetida (Anon. 1991).
12.1.4 Area and production
There is no reliable information on the area under asafetida or the amount produced.
This is because production and trade are not organized in any of the producing
countries. While the area under asafetida may not decrease suddenly, it being a
perennial plant, production can go up and down steeply as demand and price determine
the amount of oleogum extracted.