Asafoetida

Asafoetida is the dried gum resin of several species of Ferula, tall perennials of the carrot family. Ferula assa-foetida, a plant found only in southern Iran, is one of them, though it is often wrongly named as the main source. The plant can reach nine feet, with a thick stem, parsley-like leaves and pale greenish-yellow flowers. Harvesters bare and slash the fleshy roots of plants about four years old, and the milky juice seeps out and hardens into reddish lumps. Afghanistan and Iran have long been the chief producers, sending most of the crop to India, where a pinch, ground with rice flour, seasons curries, pickles and lentil dishes, and stands in for onion and garlic among Jains. Babylonians, Greeks and Romans cooked with it too, and Persians called it the food of the gods. Its sulphurous stench earned it the name devil's dung. Even so it has been burned as ritual incense: Agrippa, and later the French mystic Paul Sédir, recorded medieval magicians burning it to make spirits appear, and the occultist Karl von Eckartshausen listed it among fumigations to banish spectres. In Germany and colonial Pennsylvania a lump hung round the neck kept off evil spirits, witches and ghosts. Modern practice burns small amounts in exorcism and protection incense, and Cunningham warns that the smell alone has made people vomit.