Asafetida, as'a-fet'i-da, a drug obtained from a plant of the parsley family, native to Persia and Afghanistan. In early spring the leaves are torn off and the soil is removed from the parsnip-like root, until it is exposed for an inch or two. A few weeks later a horizontal slice is cut from the top of the root. A milky juice then oozes up and dries into the gum-resin like lumps in which asafetida is brought to market. The drug has so disagreeable an odor that the Germans call it "devil's drug." It is not a welcome article of freight among western nations, but in India, Persia, and even in France it is used like garlic to flavor food. In Anglo-Saxon countries, asafetida is considered a valuable remedy in cases of hysteria, infant convulsions, etc. See DRUGS; MEDICINE.