potassium sulphide; the residual oil is found to have the odour of cin namon. The resin of asafoetida is not wholly soluble in ether or in chloroform, but dissolves with decomposition in warm concentrated nitric acid. It contains a little Ferulaic Acid, CH3(OC) CH.CH.COOH, discovered by Hlasiwetz and Barth in 1866, crystallizing in iridescent needles soluble in boiling water; it is homologous with Eugetic Acid, CH2(OCH COOH which is to be obtained by adding CO3 to CH.CH.CH3, the molecule of eugenol (page. 284). OCH3 (see Ferulaic acid may be obtained from vanillin, CH3OH 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 per cent. of Umbelliferone, CHO3. The mucilaginous matter of asafoetida 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 asafoetida, 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 asafoetida from Bombay to Europe is very small in comparison with the shipments to other ports of India. Uses Asafoetida 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 dal. 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 asafoetida 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 establish ments. 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.1 (F. Asafoetida 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. It forms an almost blackish brown, originally translucent, brittle mass, of extremely foetid alliaceous odour, containing many pieces of the stem with no admixture of earth. Guibourt, by whom it was first noticed,' was convinced that it had not been obtained from the root, but had been cut from the stem. He remarks that Theophrastus alludes to asafoetida (as he terms the Silphium 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, who calls it Asafoetida 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 Asafoetida. The former yields an abundance of essential oil, which differs by its reddish hue from that of asafoetida. The oil of Hing, as distilled by one of us (1877) has also a higher specific gravity, namely, 102 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 asafoetida 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. GALBANUM. Gummi-resina Galbanum; Galbanum; F. Galbanum; G. Mutterharz. Botanical Origin-The uncertainty that exists as to the plants which furnish asafoetida, 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:7 1 Flora Orientalis, ii. (1872) 995. 2 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. 3 Hist. des Drogues, iii. (1850) 223. 4 Hist. Plantarum, 1. vi. c. 3. 5 Gommes-résines des Ombellifères (thèse), Paris, 1869. 32. 6 Borszczow, op. cit. 13-14. 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,'-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. The plant is called in Persian Khassuih, and the Mazanderan dialect Boridsheh. 2. F. rubricaulis Boiss.3 (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, who regards it as the same as the preceding (though Boissier 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 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,' and is mentioned by the earliest writers on medicine as Hippocrates and Theophrastus. 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. Under the name of Kinnah it was well known to the Arabians, and through them to the physicians of the school of Salerno. In the journal of expenses of John, king of France, during his captivity in England, A.D. 1359-60, there is an entry for the purchase of 1 lb. 1Aufzählung 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, part 16. 2 Buhse, .c.; also Bulletin de la Soc. imp. des Nat. de Moscou, xxiii. (1850) 548. Diagnoses Plantarum novarum præsertim orientalium, ser. ii. fasc. 2 (1856) 92. Op. cit. 36 (see p. 315, note 1). *Flora Orientalis, ii. (1872) 995. of Galbanum which cost 168., 1 lb. of Sagapenum (Serapin) at the same time costing only 28. In common with other products of the East, these drugs used to reach England by way of Venice, and are mentioned among the exports of that city to London in 1503.2 An edict of Henry III. of France promulgated in 1581, gives the prices per lb. of the gum resins of the Umbellifere as follows:-Opopanax, 32 sols, Sagapenum 22 sols, Asafoetida 15 sols, Galbanum 10 sols, Ammoniacum 6 sols 6 deniers." Description-Galbanum is met with in drops or tears, adhering inter se into a mass, usually compact and hard, but sometimes found so soft as to be fluid The tears are of the size of a lentil to that of a hazel-nut, translucent, and of various shades of light brown, yellowish or faintly greenish. The drug has a peculiar, not unpleasant, aromatic odour, and a disagreeable, bitter, alliaceous taste. In one variety, the tears are dull and waxy, of a light yellowish tint when fresh, but becoming of an orange brown by keeping; they are but little disposed to run together, and are sometimes quite dry and loose, with an odour that somewhat reminds one of savine. In recent importations of this form of galbanum, we have noticed a considerable admixture of thin transverse slices of the root of the plant, an inch or more in diameter. Chemical Composition-Galbanum contains volatile oil, resin and mucilage. The first, of which 7 per cent. may be obtained by distillation with water, is a colourless or slightly yellowish liquid, partly consisting of a hydrocarbon, C10H16, boiling at from 170° to 180°. This oil affords. easily crystals of terpin, CH1+3 OH3, if it is treated as mentioned in the article Oleum Cajuputi; it also affords the crystallized compound CH16+HCl. But the prevailing part of oil of galbanum consists of hydrocarbons of a much higher boiling point. The crude oil has a mild aromatic taste, and deviates the ray of polarized light to the right. When The resin, which we find to constitute about 60 per cent. of the drug, is very soft, and dissolves in ether or in alkaline liquids, even in milk of lime, but only partially in bisulphide of carbon. heated for some time at 100° C. with hydrochloric acid, it yields Umbelliferone, CHO3, which may be dissolved from the acid liquid by means of ether or chloroform; it is obtained on evaporation in colourless acicular crystals. Umbelliferone is soluble in hot water; its solution exhibits, especially on addition of an alkali, a brilliant blue fluorescence which is destroyed by an acid. If a small fragment of galbanum is immersed in water, the fluorescence is immediately produced by a drop of ammonia. The same phenomenon takes place with asafoetida, not at all with ammoniacum; it is probably due to traces of umbelliferone pre-existing in the former drugs. By boiling the umbel 1 Doüet d'Arcq, Comptes de l'Argenterie des Rois de France (1851) 236.-The prices must be multiplied by 3 to give a notion of present value. 2 Pasi, Tariffa de Pesi e Misure, Venet. 1521. 204 (1st edition, 1503). 3 Fontanon, Edicts et Ordonnances des Rois de France, ii. (1585) 388. 3 This property of umbelliferone may be beautifully shown by dipping some bibulous paper into water which has stood for an hour or two on lumps of galbanum, and drying it. A strip of this paper placed in a test tube of water with a drop of ammonia, will give a superb blue solution, instantly losing its colour on the addition of a drop of hydrochloric acid. liferone with concentrated caustic lye, it splits up into resorcin, carbonic acid and formic acid. Umbelliferone is also produced from many other aromatic umbelliferous plants, as Angelica, Levisticum and Meum, when their respective resins are submitted to dry distillation. According to Zwenger (1860) it may be likewise obtained from the resin of Daphne Mezereum L. The yield is always small; it is highest in galbanum, but even in this does not much exceed 0.8 per cent. reckoned on the crude drug. By submitting galbanum-resin to dry distillation, there will be obtained a thick oil of an intense and brilliant blue,' which was noticed as early as about the year 1730 by Caspar Neumann of Berlin. It is a liquid having an aromatic odour and a bitter acrid taste; in cold it deposits crystals of umbelliferone, which can be extracted by repeatedly shaking the oil with boiling water. A small amount of fatty acids is also removed at the same time. Submitted to rectification the crude oil at first yields a greenish portion and then the superb blue oil. Kachler (1871) found that it could be resolved by fractional distillation into a colourless oil having the formula CH, and a blue oil to which he assigned the composition CHO, boiling at 289° C. As to the hydrocarbon, it boils at 240° C., and therefore differs from the essential oil obtained when galbanum is distilled with water. The blue oil, after due purification, agrees, according to Kachler, with the blue oil of the flowers of Matricaria Chamomilla L. Each may be transformed by means of potassium into a colourless hydrocarbon, CH6; or by anhydride of phosphoric acid into another product, CH, likewise colourless. The latter, as well as the former hydrocarbon, if diluted with ether, and bromine be added, assumes for a moment a fine blue tint; the colourless oil as afforded by the drug on distillation with water assumes also the same coloration with bromine. By fusing galbanum-resin with potash, Hlasiwetz and Barth (1864) obtained crystals (about 6 per cent.) of Resorcin or Meta-Dioxybenzol, together with acetic and volatile fatty acids. The name of this remarkable substance alludes to Orcin, which had been extracted in 1829 by Robiquet from lichens. The formula of Resorcin, CH(OH)2, shows at once its relations to Orcin, CH CH(OH). Resorcin has been ascertained to be frequently produced by melting other resins with potash; it has also been prepared on a large scale for the manufacture of the brilliant colouring matter called Eosin. Galbanum-resin treated with nitric acid yields Trinitroresorcin CH(NO)(OH), the so-called Styphnic Acid. If galbanum, or still better its resin, is very moderately warmed with concentrated hydrochloric acid, a red hue is developed, which turns violet or bluish if spirit of wine is slowly added. Asafoetida treated in the same way assumes a dingy greenish colour, and ammoniacum is not altered at all. This test probably depends upon the formation of resorcin, which in itself is not coloured by hydrochloric acid, but assumes a red or blue colour if sugar or mucilage or certain other substances are present. It is remarkable that ammoniacum, though likewise yielding resorcin when fused with potash, assumes no We have found it best to mix the galbanum-resin with coarsely powdered pum ice-stone; the oil is then easily and abundantly obtainable. |