# Asafoetida (Ferula assa-foetida)

**Assa fetida**

**Known today as.** The dried resin of *Ferula assa-foetida*, “devil’s dung.”

Kind: Resin & Wood  
Qualities: Hot and dry (Galenic tradition).

## What did Canale use it for?

Burnt in the fumigation; four grains in the oil (chs. 8–9).

## What does modern science say?

It is carminative and still used as a spice in Indian cooking.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **sec-butyl propenyl disulfide**: the stink; 10–17 per cent oil
- **ferulic acid esters**: in the resin
- **umbelliferone and other coumarins**: 
- **galbanic acid**: a sesquiterpene coumarin

**Mechanism.** The sulfides are carminative and antispasmodic in the gut and are excreted by the lungs, which is the old use for hysteria and asthma; in a fumigation they are the smell that was meant to drive the demon out. Given to infants for colic in American folk practice it has caused methaemoglobinaemia (Kelly, 1984).

**Dose.** Safe as a spice; not for infants.

**Standing.** A spice of Indian cooking (hing) and in the Ayurvedic and Iranian pharmacopoeias; no European monograph.

## What lore surrounds it?

Its reek is the point: stench to torment the spirit that had taken up residence, as sweetness honored God.

## What did the older authorities say?

**Pliny and Strabo.** The Persian or Median resin was known in antiquity as a poorer substitute for the silphium of Cyrene, which had grown scarce (see [Silphium](https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/silphium)).

**German folk names.** *Teufelsdreck*, “devil’s dung,” for its stench.

## Sources

- Kelly, K. J., et al. (1984). “Methemoglobinemia in an infant treated with the folk remedy glycerited asafoetida.” *Pediatrics* 73.
- Iranshahy, M., and Iranshahi, M. (2011). “Traditional uses, phytochemistry and pharmacology of asafoetida: a review.” *Journal of Ethnopharmacology* 134.

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*Asafoetida.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-09-25. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/asafoetida

Historical description, not medical advice.