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ASAFOETIDA

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Mihir Gupta, June 6, 2025

Asafoetida produces heat. Therefore, it should not be given to pregnant women.

Use it in small quantities. It is beneficial to consume it as a spice.

Consumption method- Swallow asafetida equal to gram dal and drink water from above. Give less to the kids.

Identification of pure asafoetida –

(l) Add colored gum or resin to asafetida. The identity of pure asafetida is – by dissolving it in water, a white colored solution is formed. If the solution is white in color, then it is pure.

(2) On burning asafetida with a matchstick, if it burns completely, then asafetida is real. Pure asafetida is very fragrant.

(3) Impure or artificial asafetida when dissolved in the water settles down.

Burning–

After dissolving a little asafetida in water and applying it to the burnt area, it stops the burning sensation in the ear, if there is a pain in the ear, boil a little asafetida in a spoonful of mustard oil, by dripping two drops of this oil in the ear, the pain will be cured soon.

Remove sweating–

It is beneficial to sweat in fever, and body pain. To remove sweat, grind asafetida, carom seeds, rock salt, and dry ginger in equal quantities. With half a spoon of warm water, cover it with a blanket. Go to sleep. With this, sweating will come out from the hair follicles, take two doses in the same way for four hours. The blister does not rise.

Pain–

Grind asafoetida in ghee, grind it and dissolve it in hot water and apply asafoetida and dry ginger in equal quantity and lick it with a quarter spoon of honey daily in the morning. Consuming continuously for one month will be beneficial.

Rheumatism–

If there is a pain in the joints, if there is a pain in the feet, then boil asafetida, moong dal in a glass of water in the morning and evening and drink it regularly for a few days if the water is half boiling.

Rib pain–
Dissolve asafoetida in hot water and apply it to the ribs which are hurting.

Constipation–

Grind a little asafetida and sweet soda, four spoons of fennel and take one spoon with warm water in the morning and evening. Constipation will go away. If this does not happen. First smoke asafetida in the pickle vessel, then fill the pickle in it. Dissolve asafetida in hot water and apply it around the navel and eat half a gram of roasted asafetida with anything, it is beneficial.

Its consumption increases appetite. If stomach ache is due to air stagnation, then boil 2 grams asafetida in half a kilo of water and drink it hot after the water remains quart. Dissolving asafetida in water and applying it around the navel, the pain gets cured quickly. Roast asafetida with ghee on low flame and make a powder of it.

Stomach ache-

(1) Drinking a little powder mixed with water provides immediate benefits.
(2) If the child cries, hands, and feet are slammed, if the hand moves towards the stomach, then it is a sign of stomach pain. Mix asafetida equal to moong dal in mother’s milk and give it to the child.

Stomach pain will be cured. After this, grind mustard and asafetida and apply a thin paste around the navel, children will get relief.

Indigestion- Asafetida, small herb, rock salt, carom seeds – mix them all in equal quantities and grind them. Indigestion is cured by taking one spoon thrice a day with lukewarm water. Dissolving asafetida in water and sniffing it cures half-headache. After this, grind mustard and asafetida and apply a thin paste around the navel, children will get relief. Indigestion is cured by taking one spoon thrice a day with lukewarm water.

Stomach pain, dyspepsia, mix roasted asafetida and cumin, dry ginger and rock salt and take it with a quarter teaspoon of warm water.

Cholera-

Cholera germs do not remain active by drinking a little asafetida dissolved in a cup of water.

To drive away flies and mosquitoes, spread smoke by putting asafetida on the fire in the house.

If there is a pain in the joints, if there is a pain in the feet, then boil asafetida, moong dal in a glass of water in the morning and evening and drink it regularly for a few days if the water is half boiling.

Headache–
If you have a headache due to cold, mix asafetida in warm water and apply it.

Vomiting-

Taking five grams of roasted asafetida, four spoons of carom seeds, ten raisins with seeds, black salt as per taste, after grinding one- fourth spoon thrice a day, it cures vomiting and nausea.

Bala (Naru)–
(1)Mix two gram-filled asafoetida in 60 grams of moth flour and dissolve it in water and heat it. When it becomes like a lei, take it off and tie its bandage on Bala (Naru). Bala’s yarn will come out from this poultice.

(2) Put mustard oil in asafetida and bake it and apply this oil from where Naru is coming out, it will be beneficial.

(3) Swelling anywhere in the hands and feet leads to a blister-like appearance. Then the blister bursts and a thread- like thread come out of it.

Diarrhea–

Take out the kernel after roasting the mango kernels. Bake 5 grams of asafetida in 50 grams of such kernel and put it. Grind by adding rock salt as per taste. Take one-fourth teaspoon of this powder thrice a day with cold water. The diarrhea will stop.

Authors

  • Mihir Gupta

    Do you know a punjabi who is not a foodie... well I would call
    Myself a health aficionado . Food has an enthusiastic effect on me . Being the younger sibling with various health conditions, I was nurtured in an environment of overprotectiveness. Their concern was rooted in my lower immunity and frequent illnesses and my mother always emphasized a healthy diet, instilling in me the belief that "you are what you eat”.
    This belief was put to the test when I was the only one in my family to contract COVID-19. The isolation was challenging but became a pivotal moment for self-care and introspection. During this period, I leaned heavily on the wisdom imparted by my mother, who shared recipes for nutritious green juices and herbal teas, all sourced from our kitchen garden. I meticulously journaled this experience, recording each meal and its impact on my health.

  • Breathing is not always automatic. I learnt that the hard way.
    Even now, I can recall the harrowing memory from when I was 4: 3 AM, my chest tightening faster than I could explain. My parents rushing to find the nebuliser.
    For most kids, a medicine cabinet is usually a background object. Not for me, though. Ours had a schedule. Steroids. Inhalers. Steam. Nebulisers.
    My missed school days were no longer measured by absences, but by how long it took for my lungs to recuperate. This illness exiled me from the very body my childhood self had once taken for granted.
    But alongside the treatment, I began to notice smaller rituals. Rituals that made the illness feel a little less consuming. The nushkas (home remedies) were endless: adrak wali chai, honey stirred into turmeric or the steam inhalation my mom transformed into a myriad of herbs. My mother never called it nutritional science, but she knew what to make and when.
    When “healthy food” came to my mind, I pictured imported products, expensive superfoods and products in a vocabulary my childhood self could not decode.
    But I looked at my own kitchen.
    Lentils simmering, ginger crushing, yoghurt culturing. Ingredients so familiar, yet so valuable. The more I googled, the more I realised health shouldn’t be hidden behind imported deliveries. Sometimes, it can begin with what’s already waiting on the kitchen counter.
    This realisation became the foundation of Food Thy Medicine for me.
    I met my co- founder in the waiting room of a pulmonologist's clinic, where our shared routines of inhalers and nebulisers made the idea feel less like a project but a conversation we had to continue. Thus, I began contributing to this project during the summers after Grades 9 and 10. What began as an interest in food and health became deeply personal: a way to turn years of dependence on doctors, prescriptions and steroids into a desire to understand the body better. As a co-author, I helped build a platform that makes nutrition information practical, not glamorous.
    The research for my AI ensured isn’t built for a perfect kitchen, rather the half- empty fridge, rushed day and leftovers that people ask “What can we do with this?” It turns familiar ingredients into realistic meal ideas and our research explains what those ingredients contribute nutritionally.
    The point was never to make food mythical but to make useful information feel less daunting and more reliable. It does not replace doctors or medicine: and it shouldn’t. I still take my prescribed medicine. I still live with asthma. But the illness taught me that care doesn’t begin and end at a clinic door and may be found in the ordinary decisions at home. What we cook, what we keep in the fridge and how we care for ourselves between appointments.
    I can’t control every flare up. But I can keep asking better questions, and help more people see possibility in the food around them.
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