- Asafoetida in tears is the purest variety. - Stony asafœtida, never used medicinally, consists of pieces of gypsum

- Asafoetida in tears is the purest variety. - Stony asafœtida, never used medicinally, consists of pieces of gypsum

or other earthy material coated with a thin layer of the milkjuice. CONSTITUENTS.—The greater part of asafoetida consists of a gum (20

to 30 per cent.) and resin (50 to 70 per cent.). These, with the volatile oil (3 to 9 per cent.), form with water a milky emulsion. The resin is

regarded by Tschirch as the ferulic ester of asaresino-tannol, C 24 H 35 O 5 , which, by sublimation, yields umbelliferone. There is also contained in

the drug vanillin 0.06 per cent., ferulic acid, C 10 H 10 O 4 , 1.28 per cent. The resin, when fused with KOH, yields resorcin and protocatechuic

acid. The mineral impurities often amount to 40%, especially in that imported from Herat, where it is adulterated with red clay. Ash (of Resin), not to exceed 15 per cent.; (Powder), not to exceed 30 per cent.

For an exhaustive treatise on Gum Resins, etc., the student is referred to “Anal ysis of Resins, Balsams and Gum Resins, Their Chemistry and Pharmacognosis,” by Carl Dietrich (Scott, Greenwood & Co., London).

ACTION AND USES.—Asafoetida combines the properties of a stimulating antispasmodic with those of an efficient expectorant, making it a valuable remedy in spasmodic affections of the respiratory tract, as whooping-cough, asthma, etc. It is also a laxative, especially useful in cases of flatulence. Dose: 5 to 8 gr. (0.3 to 0.5 Gm.).

OFFICIAL PREPARATIONS. Emulsum Asafœtidæ (4 per cent.),

Dose: 2 to 4 fl. dr. (8 to 15 mils). Tinctura Asafœtidæ (20 per cent.),

10 to 40 drops (0.6 to 2.6 mils). Pilulæ Asafœtidæ (each pill containing about 3 gr. of asafoetida, with soap as an excipient) 2 to 5 pills.

398. GALBANUM.—GALBANUM. A gum-resin imported from Persia, but the botanical source of which is not definitely decided; it is generally considered, however,

as a spontaneous exudation from Feru'la galbani'flua Boissier et Buhse, and other species of Ferula, large plants growing in that region. It is usually met with in pale yellow or brownish tears, ranging in size from a pea to a hazelnut, occasionally separate and with a shining, varnished surface, but more generally agglutinated into a more or less hard mass by means of a darker, yellowish-brown, sometimes greenish, substance. In winter this mass has the consistence of firm wax, but in the heat of summer it becomes soft and sticky; odor balsamic; taste acrid and bitter.

CONSTITUENTS.—Besides gum and resin, it contains the interesting principle, umbelliferone (common to many umbelliferous plants), acicular crystals, producing a brilliant blue fluorescence on the addition of an alkali.

ACTION AND USES.—Stimulant, expectorant, and antispasmodic. Dose: 5 to 8 gr. (0 . 3 to 0 . 5 Gm.).

399. AMMONIACUM.—GUM AMMONIAC. A gum-resin exuding from Dore'ma ammoni'acum Don. Off. U.S.P., 1890. Roundish tears varying in size from 1.5 to 12

mm. ( 1 / 16 to 1 / 2 in.) in diameter, externally yellow or pale yellowish-brown. When warm it is of the consistence of wax, but it becomes brittle when cold, breaking with a milk-

white, waxy fracture, translucent at the edges; odor balsamic, stronger on heating; white, waxy fracture, translucent at the edges; odor balsamic, stronger on heating;

protocatechuic acid and resorcin, C 6 H 6 O 2 , Among the derivatives of the acid resin are salicylic acid,

ammoresinotannol, etc. Similar to asafœtida—stimulating expectorant, antispasmodic and laxative-but less powerful. Dose: 10 to 30 gr. (0. 6 to 2 Gm.).

Emulsum Ammoniaci 4 per cent.),

U.S.P. 1890 Dose: 1/2 to 1 fl. oz. (1.5 to 30 mils). Emplastrum Ammomaci cum Hydrargyro (72 per cent., with mercury,

oleate of mercury, dilute acetic acid, and lead plaster), U.S.P. 1890.