Asafoetida
The sap is extracted from the root and stem by incision. The best sap is reddish and translucent; it has the smell of myrrh and a strong fragrance, is neither greenish nor unpleasant in taste, and quickly turns white. One should know that the Cyrenaican sap, even when tasted in very small quantity, immediately induces perspiration of the whole body and has a very sweet fragrance, so that the taster's breath smells only briefly. The saps of Media and Syria are decidedly weaker and their odour is rather foetid.To me, the most unpleasant odor in the world is that of asafoetida; yet greens seasoned with it do not smell bad. You should not be surprised by this, for onions have a very bad smell, and yet dishes seasoned with them are very good. The truth is that there are many habits when it comes to odors.
One grows like a shrub and has small leaves like those of rue; the other resembles a turnip, and its greenness is like that of fig leaves. It grows preferably in stony and dry places, and its gum begins to exude toward the end of summer, so that it must be harvested in autumn.
A Portuguese from Besnagar had a very expensive horse, but it suffered from gas, and the King did not wish to buy it for this reason. The Portuguese cured it by feeding it imgu with flour. The King bought it at a good price after its recovery, and asked the man with what he had treated it. He replied that he had given it imgu. The King retorted: "Do not be surprised, for you gave it the food of the gods, the nectar, as the poets say." The man then replied, but softly and in Portuguese, that they would have done better to call it the food of demons.