Ferula assa-foetida explained

Ferula assa-foetida is a species of Ferula endemic to Southern Iran.^[1] It is a source of asafoetida, but not the main source, although many sources claim so. The production of asafoetida from this species is confined to Southern Iran, especially the area near Lar.^{[2] [3] [4]}

Outside its native range, other asafoetida-producing species are often misidentified as F. assa-foetida.^[5] For example, F. foetida is mistaken for F. assa-foetida in Flora of the U.S.S.R. and Flora of Pakistan.^{[6] [7]} In a molecular phylogenetic study, all the plant samples of F. assa-foetida collected in Central Iran were not the true species, but F. alliacea and F. gabrielii or their close relatives instead.^[8] Chemical analyses of asafoetida samples obtained from local markets in Eastern Iran also showed that asafoetida-producing species there were F. lutensis, F. foetida, F. alliacea, etc., instead of F. assa-foetida.

F. pseudalliacea and F. rubricaulis are endemic to western and southwestern Iran and are sometimes considered conspecific with F. assa-foetida.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Ferula assa-foetida L.. 2021-05-20. Plants of the World Online. Kew Science.
2. Farhadi . Faegheh . Asili . Javad . Iranshahy . Milad . Iranshahi . Mehrdad . NMR-based metabolomic study of asafoetida . Fitoterapia . November 2019 . 139 . 104361 . 10.1016/j.fitote.2019.104361 . 31629871 . 204814018 .
3. Farhadi . Faegheh . Iranshahi . Mehrdad . Taghizadeh . Seyedeh Faezeh . Asili . Javad . Volatile sulfur compounds: The possible metabolite pattern to identify the sources and types of asafoetida by headspace GC/MS analysis . Industrial Crops and Products . November 2020 . 155 . 112827 . 10.1016/j.indcrop.2020.112827 . 224886254 .
4. Barzegar . Alireza . Salim . Mohammad Amin . Badr . Parmis . Khosravi . Ahmadreza . Hemmati . Shiva . Seradj . Hassan . Iranshahi . Mehrdad . Mohagheghzadeh . Abdolali . Persian Asafoetida vs. Sagapenum: Challenges and Opportunities . Research Journal of Pharmacognosy . April 2020 . 7 . 2 . 10.22127/rjp.2019.196452.1516 .
5. Chamberlain. David F. 1977. The identity of Ferula assa-foetida L.. Notes from the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. 35. 2. 229–233.
6. Book: Shishkin, B. K.. Flora of the U.S.S.R.. Israel Program for Scientific Translations. Translated by Lavoott, R. Edited by Lorch, J.. 1974. 0-7065-1299-5. 17. Jerusalem. 52. 1951.
7. Web site: Ferula assa-foetida L.. 2021-05-20. Flora of Pakistan. Missouri Botanical Garden.
8. Panahi . Mehrnoush . Banasiak . łukasz . Piwczyński . Marcin . Puchałka . Radosław . Kanani . Mohammad Reza . Oskolski . Alexei A . Modnicki . Daniel . Miłobędzka . Aleksandra . Spalik . Krzysztof . Taxonomy of the traditional medicinal plant genus Ferula (Apiaceae) is confounded by incongruence between nuclear rDNA and plastid DNA . Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society . 28 September 2018 . 188 . 2 . 173–189 . 10.1093/botlinnean/boy055 . free .