Asafoetida

Product Details

About

It is a plant of Umbelliferae family, herbaceous and perennial. Its root is slightly thick and fleshy. Its leaves are very cut and dusty and its stem is hollow, fleshy and up to two meters high. This plant does not have a visible stem in the first few years of its age and its leaves are widespread on the ground. From the root of this plant or the lower part of the stem and its collar, by squeezing or cutting in the collar area, in the late spring, the sap which is very stinking comes out during the summer, which gradually hardens in the presence of air, which is called Asafoetida. This plant grows in barren, dry and calcareous lands of warm regions of Asia. It is native to the steppes of Iran and Afghanistan. In Iran, it grows in different parts of Khorasan, Baluchistan and different parts of the south, and other species of this plant also grow in Iran, from which it is also taken Asafoetida. Asafoetida has an astringent, bitter and biting taste and its smell is similar to the smell of garlic, it is stinking and unbearable.
Asafoetida is a medicinal, rangeland and industrial plant that a sap or a gum is obtained by cutting the roots of this plant, which has a pungent sulfur odor similar to the stinking and flavorful smell of garlic, which is marketed in both tear drop and pile form, depending on the type of plant. Two types of bitter and sweet Asafoetida are harvested from it. Despite the apparent differences in the plants and gums harvested, both species belong to the species Ferula assa-foetida.
After research conducted in Iran, the conclusion was as follows:
1- The percentage of essential oil in bitter Asafoetida was more than the percentage of essential oil in sweet Asafoetida.
2- The main constituents in Tabas sweet asafoetida and bitter asafoetida were propenyl sec-butyl disulfide.
3- Bitter asafoetida contained a large amount epi-γ-eudesmol.
Sweet Asafoetida is used for food and bitter Asafoetida is mostly used for industrial purposes.

Chemical Constituents

Asafoetida possesses a powerful alliaceous odour and a bitter acrid taste. It contains a volatile oil (4-20%), resin (40-60%), gums (20%) and some impurities. The oil consists chiefly of isobutyl propanyl disulphide and related compounds, which are responsible for the characteristic smell of the gum resin. The resin is composed of coumarins such as umbelliferone, 5- hydroxyumbelliprenin, 8-hydroxyumbelliprenin, 9-hydroxyumbelliprenin, 8- acetoxy, 5-hydroxy umbelliprenin, asafoetidin, ferocolicin and asacoumarins A&B; phenols such as asaresinol ferulate and free ferulic acid and a group of sesquiterpenes, farnesiferol A, B, & C characteristically containing coumarin groups.

Medical disclaimer

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