Monier-Williams: A Sanskrit-English Dictionary (p. 1298)
hiGgu m. Ferula Asa Foetida Buddh. BhP.; n. a fluid or resinous substance prepared from the roots of the Asa Foitida (used as a medicine or for seasoning) MBh. Hariv. Suśr. &c.

Tamil Lexicon, University of Madras (p. 878 )
kāyam: 01 1. Pungency; 2. Pepper; 3. Sliced vegetables for curry; 4. Curry stuffs, condiments, seasoning; 5. Garlic; 6. Asafoetida; 7. Vegetable stimulants used in medicine; 8. Maturity strength;
02 1. Wound, injury to the flesh, bruise, contusion; 2. Scar, cicatrice
03 body
04 space, sky
05 permanence

Tamil Lexicon, University of Madras (p. 2871)
peruṅkāyam: 1. Asafoetida, s. sh., Ferula; 2. Commercial resinous product of Ferula

Dymock, Warden, Hooper: Pharmacographia Indica (vol. II, pp. 141-146)
Ferula alliacea, Umbelliferrae
The old Greek and Latin writers on Materia Medica mention two kinds of Silphium - one good or sweet, and the other fetid. Theophrastus in hi History of Plants (vi.,8), speaks of two varieties, of the stem and of the root. He says: -*-. Dioscorides mentions two kinds, one coming from Cyrene and the other from Asia. Some consider the silphium of Cyrene to have been entirely differnt from our Asafoetida, but from a passage in Strabo this does not appear to have been the case. He says:- -*-. Pliny's account of silphium or laserpitium is very confused, but he has collected some information which we now know to be correct. N. Myrepsicus appears to be the first writer who mentions the name -*-, which he says is an Italian name for the -*- of the Greeks of his day. In the Rudens of Plautus (B.C. 220) the scene of which is near Cyrene, frequent allusion is made to the growth of Laserpitium there, and the preparation and export of the gum-resin, as forming the staple article of trade. The Greek and Latin authors agree in saying that the silphium or laser of Cyrene was the best, but from works of Pliny and Scribonius Largus we learn that it was almost if not quite unobtainable in their times. Pliny relates that a single plant was represented to the Emperor Nero as a curiosity. The gum-resin of F. alliacea is the Hing of the natives of India, the other kind being seldom used by them. In Sanskrit it is called Hingu, and is said to be so called from its killing or over-powering all other odours. In the Nighantas it bears various synonyms, amongst which may be mentioned Balhika "coming from Balkh"; Rāmatha, Bhōta-nāsana, "destroying demons"; and Sula-nāsana, "removing pain in the stomach"; it is described as hot, digestive, appetizing, pungent; a remedy for phlegm, rheumatism, griping, flatulence, diseases of the belly, satiety and worms. It increases the secretion of bile.
Hindu medical wrriters direct it to be fried before being used. It is in great repute as a condiment among vegetarians, also as an antispasmodic in nervous affections; taken daily it is thought to ward off attacks of malarial fever.
Asafoetida must have been used in India from a very remote period, as the earliest Sanskrit writers mention it.
The plant is called Jatuka or Jātuka, a word derived from Jatu, "gum or lac"; it is described as a fragrant plant. Of the Mahometan writers on Materia Medica, Ibn Sina mentions two kinds of Asafoetida - tyib (good) and muntin (fetid), but gives no description of them. Ali Istakhri who also lived in the 10th century, states that the drug is produced abundantly in the desert between Sistan and Makran, and is much used by the people as a condiment. The geographer Edrisi, who wrote about the middle of the 12th century, asserts that Asafoetida, called in Arabic Hiltit, is collected largely in Western Afghanistan. Haji Zein the druggist, in the 14th century, tells us that the two kinds of Asafoetida are produced by two different plants, the black and the white Anjudān, and that the latter plant produces the kind known as tyib (good). Mir Muhammad Mumin of Shiraz, who wrote in the 17th century, remarks that the Asafoetida known as tyib has a reddish colour, and is produced by a plant vulgarly known as Kulah-par (cap-leaf), that known as muntin has a disagreeable odour like a leek, and is called at Ispahan Angusht-gandah, "stink finger." Aitchison, who travelled in Eastern Persia, and the neighbouring districts of Beluchistan and Afghanistan, with the Afghan Boundary Delimitation Comission (1884-85) found that the name Kema was applied generally by the peasantry to the large umbelliferous plants in those parts, the Asafoetida plant being distinguished as Anghuzah-kema and the Ammoniacum as Kandal-kema. The primary meaning of this word in Persian is a sleeve, and there can be no doubt that the similarity between the large sheathing petioles of these plants, and the loose Persian sleeve has suggested the comparison. It would appear then that the kind of Asafoetida called tyib by the Arabs and their followers is the drug of European commerce, the produce of Ferula foetida, Regel, and not that of F. alliacea, Boiss., which produces the Hing of India. In describing the medicinal properties of the drug, the Mahometan physicians closely follow Dioscorides.
The flowering stems of the Asafoetida plants are eaten as a vegetable, as stated by Pliny. Aitchison notices their use for this purpose, and Dr. Peters forwarded to one of us the flowering stem of F. foetida, Regel, which he had purchased in the bazaar at Quetta.
Guibourt (1850) was the first European writer to point out the difference between the Asafoetida of India known as Hing and that of the European Pharmacopoeias which is called in India Hingra. Vigner, Commes-r‚sines des Ombellif‚res (1869) calls Hing Asafoetida nans‚ense. We are indebted to Mr. Ardeshir Mehrban, a merchant of Yezd, for most of the following particulars regarding the source of this drug. Mr. Ardeshir, having himself visited the hills where the plant grows, was able to speak from personal observation. The plant which produces the Asafoetida used in India (Darakht-i-Anguzeh-i-khālis) grows wild on the hills of Khorasān in very stony ground. The hill-men collect the gum-resin, taking an advance from the merchants. The time for collecting it is in the spring. The plant is not nearly so large as that which produces Asafoetida of European commerce (Darakht-i-Anguzeh-i-Lāri), the diameter at the crown of the root being seldom more than two inches. The collectors protect each plant by building a small cairn of stones round it; they also remove the soil from the upper portion of the root, making a kind of circular basin. When the stem begins to grow it is cut off, and the upper part of the root being wounded, a small quantity of very choice gum is collected, which seldom finds its way into the market. Afterwards a slice of the root, about 1/4 inch thick, is removed every two or three days with the exudation adhering to it, until the root is exhausted. The collected mass, consisting of alternate layers of root and gum-resin, when packed in skins (in quantities of about 100 lbs.) forms the Hing of Indian commerce; it is imported into Bombay in large quantities (about 2,500 cwts annually), and is valued at the Custom House for assessment at Rs. 55 per cwt., commercial Asafoetida (Hingra) being only valued at Rs. 20. Early in 1874, the late Mr. Hanbury was kind enough to forward to one of us the proof-sheets of the article upon Asafoetida in the Pharmacographia, with a request for further information upon the subject. Unfortunately this could not be obtained in time for publication in the first edition of that work, as it involved sending to Persia for specimens of the plant and drug. In August, 1874, through the kindness of Mr. Ardeshir Mehrban, the first box of specimens was obtained, collected in the neighbourhood of Yezd. It contained- 1st, the fresh root, with gum-resin adhering to the broken portions, and from which, upon section, a further exudation took place, at first opaque and milky, but drying in the course of a day or two into a light brown translucent substance; 2nd, the flower stem with flowers and very immature fruit; 3rd, the leaves. The plant arrived in a broken state, and was forwarded to Mr. Hanbury. Upon its receipt, he wrote: -"This morning I have devoted to the Asafoetida plant, and to a comparison of it with the figures and descriptions published by Borszczow, Balfour, and Hooker; but to decide on its botanical name is at present a difficult, of not impossible, task. I suppose it to be either the Narthex of the Edinburgh garden, or the Scorodosma of Borszczow, admitting for the moment that these are two good species; but the specimen does not furnish all the characters requisite for a strict comparison. I cannot tell whether the plant has the great sheathing petioles that form so striking a feature of the Narthex, nor is it possible to say whether the flower stem bore umbels arranged in a tall regular obelisk as Narthex, or crowded towards the summit as in Scorodosma. The foliage might do for either plant, though in having shorter segments it better agrees with the latter. The inflorescence which I have soaked and dissected consists of fertile female, and abortive flowers, none staminiferous. They are remarkably glabrous, not pubescent, as in Borszczow's plant; but this is of small moment."
Early in 1875, another box of specimen, with ripe fruit and a large supply of leaves, was obtained. In acknowledging it, Mr. Hanbury wrote: -"The box containing the Asafoetida plant arrived on the 29th January in excellent order, and its contents have given me great pleasure. The large plant though it had been rudely broken up and stuffed into a narrow space, proved to be fairly perfect; and by soaking in cold water I was able to restore it to shape, and to fix it together so as to make a really beautiful specimen, measuring three feet six inches in height. The leaves, also, by soaking them and taking some pains, form very decent herbarium specimens, and there are enough of them to supply several collections. But the chief point with me has been to determine the plant. From the foliage, the pink colour of the stems and the size of the fruit, I judged it might be the Ferula alliacea of Boissier; but there being no specimen of this at Kew, I had to transmit a portion to M. Boissier, in Switzerland. His reply was definite. The plant from Yezd agrees in foliage exactly with F. alliacea, in stature, size of fruit, and other respects; but the fruit has a broader margin than in M. Boissier's specimens. However, M. Boissier thinks it may be set down as that species, a conclusion in which I entirely agree. Ferula alliacea was previously known to me only by description. You will observe that we have named it in the Pharmacographia as a possible source of Asafoetida. I have thought it right to make a wide distribution of the fine supply of seeds with which you have favoured me, and I have therefore sent packets to the Botanical Gardens of Kew, Edinburgh, Oxford, Paris, St. Petersburg, Bern, Strassburg, Florence, Pisa, Naplos, Palermo, Athens, and to botanical friends on the Mediterranean Coast, in South Africa, and a few other places. As the seeds seemed fresh and good, I am in hopes that many plants may be raised." (For a review of the botanical literature of the Asafoetida plants, see Holmes in Pharm. Journ. 3rd Ser. xix., 21-34; 41-44; 365-368.)
Ferula foetida, Umbelliferrae (vol. II, pp. 147-149, 151-152)
Commercial Asafoetida is collected from this plant in Western Afghanistan and Persia; in May the mature roots begin to send up a flowering stem, which is cut off and the juice collected in the manner described by Kaempfer, who witnessed its collection in the province of Laristan in Persia. It was long supposed that commercial Asafoetida was the produce of F. Narthex, Boiss., a Tibetan plant which was discovered by Falconer in Astor, but there is no evidence of the drug ever having been collected from it. In May, 1884, Dr. Peters, of the Bombay Medical Service, when stationed at Quetta, observed the flowering stem of an Asafoetida plant which being offered for sale in the bazaars as a vegetable by the Kākar Pathans. Specimens which he kindly forwarded to one of us were identified by Mr. E. M. Holmes as F. foetida, Regel. Dr. Peters also found the dried root of the same plant in the drug shops, and learned that ot was the plant from which Asafoetida was collected in Western Afghanistan. These facts were confirmed by Aitchison in May 1885, both as regards the source of commercial Asafoetida, and the use of the flower stalk as a vegetable. In his report upon the Botany of the Afghan Delimitation Commission, he remarks: -"In all stages of its growth, every part of the plant exudes upon abrasion a milky juice, which is collected and constitutes the drug of commerce. The stem in a young state is eaten raw or cooked." Aitchison says that a red clay called Tawah is mixed with the gum-resin at Herat, a statement which is only applicable to the kind of Asafoetida known in commerce as Kandahari Hing, to be presently noticed. Concerning the Lāristan plant we are still without exact information, but we think it will proove to be F. foetida. The remarks made respecting the use of Asafoetida by the natives of India under F. alliacea are more or less applicable to the present article, which is often imposed upon the poorer classes as a substitute for the more expensive Hing. In modern European medicine, Asafoetida is used as a stimulant and antispasmodic in chronic bronchitis, hysteria and tympanitis; it is often administered in the form of enema, as it is apt to give rise to a sense of weight and heat in the stomach when by the mouth. Dr. Paolo Negri has reported the successful treatment of two cases of abortion with Asafoetida administered to the extent of one gram daily. In the first case the woman had aborted twice and in the second four times; both patients were free from syphilitic taint, and no cause for the abortion could be detected.
Kandahari Hing.- This substance appears to have been quite unknown in Europe, until brought to the notice of Professor Fl ckiger and the late Mr. Hanbury by one of us. We have not as yet been able to obtain authentic specimens of the plant, but for the following reasons we consider it likely that it will prove to be the same as that which produces the officinal drug:
1. Bellew mentions a very high-priced Asafoetida obtained by wounding the leaf-bud of the plant which produces ordinary Asafoetida; our article is generally mixed with numerous leaf-buds, which have evidently been cut off by a sharp knife; its price is also much higher than that of any other kind.
2. When examining a number of bales of common Asafoetida from Kandahar, we found some of them to contain particles of the more expensive drug, and a large quantity of what appeared to be gum-resin in a transition stage between the transparency of Kandahar Hing and the opacity of the commercial article.
3. A portion of root found in a bale of Kandahar Hing agreed exactly with a piece obtained from a bale of common asafoetida.
4. Aitchison describes the juice of F. foetida as a thick gummy reddish substance, and notices its adulteration with red clay; this adulteration is only found in bales of KandaharÄŤ Hing.
KandaharÄŤ Hing comes to Bombay in small quantities; it is sewn up in goat skins, forming small oblong bales, with the hair outside. When it first arrives it is in moist flaky pieces and tears, from which a quantity of reddish-yellow oil separates on pressure; the gum-resin also is of a dull reddish-yellow colour, soft, and somewhat elastic, with an odout recalling that of garlic and oil of caraways. By keeping, it gradually hardens and becomes brittle and of a rich red-brown colour; the odour also becomes more purely alliaceous, and approaches that of the commercial kind. This kind of Hing is almost entirely consumed in Bombay by the manufacturers of adulterated asafoetida, its strong odour and flavour make it especially valuable for this purpose. The average value is Rs. 25 per Surat maund of 37 1/2 lbs., but as the bales often contain masses of a red clay, the actual price of the clean gum-resin is much higher.
Commerce. -Hingra arrives in Bombay from Persia and Aghanistan. The Persian is produced in the province of Lāristān, and is known to Persian merchants as Anguzeh-i-Lāri; it often arrives in a moist condition, but soon hardens. The latter comes from the country about Herat via Kandahar, and is generally hard and dry. Very fine samples in tears are not uncommon. The stony asafoetida described by Pereira is also met within India; it is simply a mixture of very fluid common asafoetida with the white sandy soil of the country in which the plant grows; it fetches a very low price, and as far as we can make out, the mixturte is made more for convenience of carriage than for the purpose of deception. Besides, when the juice is unusually fluid, it runs out upon the surrounding ground and becomes mixed with the sand. The imports of Hingra into Bombay are about 2,500 cwts. annually from Persia and Aghanistan. Value Rs. 10 to 20 per maund of 37 1/2 lbs. The total imports of Asafoetida of all kinds into British India during the last five years have been 37,306 cwts., the aggregate exports have only been 2,014 cwts.