Ferula assa-foetida is a species of Ferula endemic to Southern Iran. It is the source of asafoetida, but its production is confined to Southern Iran, especially the area near Lar. Outside its native range, other asafoetida-producing species are often misidentified as F. assa-foetida.
It is a dark brown, resin-like substance that is derived from the root of ferula. Ferula is a perennial herb related to celery, parsley, and carrots and looks like a giant fennel plant. It’s grown mainly in India but also in Iran and Afghanistan. A gum is extracted from the plant and then processed into a coarsely-textured yellow powder, which is what is known as hing or asafetida.
Experts say the plant takes about five years to produce the extractable olego gum resin.
What Is Hing or Heeng?
You may have heard the word hing or heeng floating around with regard to Indian food. These are Hindi names for what is known as asafetida in English. It’s a spice that is integral in Indian cuisine, giving authentic dishes that distinct flavor that the country’s food is so well-known for and boosting the flavor of other spices.
What Is Hing?
Hing or heeng is the Hindi word for asafetida (sometimes spelled asafoetida). It’s also been known as the devil’s dung and stinking gum, as well as asant, food of the gods, jowani badian, hengu, ingu, kayam, and ting.
It is a dark brown, resin-like substance that is derived from the root of ferula. Ferula is a perennial herb related to celery, parsley, and carrots and looks like a giant fennel plant. It’s grown mainly in India but also in Iran and Afghanistan. A gum is extracted from the plant and then processed into a coarsely-textured yellow powder, which is what is known as hing or asafetida.
When raw, hing has a distinctive, sharp, pungent smell that’s often likened to boiled eggs or a mix of onions and sulfer. It becomes extremely fragrant when added to hot oil or the clarified butter ghee to temper a dish. It’s also common to simply add a pinch directly to a dish. Some say that when cooked it has the scent of leeks.
Hing can be bought at any Indian food store in the form of small lumps or as a powder. In the U.S., you can find it in a powder or mixed with wheat. It is so pungent that the smell will permeate your cupboard and be nearly impossible to remove. For that reason, it’s best to store it in air-tight containers, even if it was purchased in plastic.
How to Cook With Hing
When paired with turmeric, hing is commonly found in lentil curries like dal, along with other vegetable dishes. Hing can be used to balance out foods that are too sour, sweet, salty, or spicy. It’s also used as an agent in pickling.
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India consumes about 40% of the world’s production of heeng
The Times of India
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What is Hing? Where Does It Come From?
Have you noticed how the whole house smells delicious when a tadka is in progress in the kitchen? The earthy aromas coming out of the kitchen usually come from a beautiful mix of ghee, zeera, frying onions and heeng. Heeng is a popular addition to most dal tadkas around the country.
Its a pungent spice that ads an unmissable flavour to any dish it is added to. Dals, Kadhis and simpler vegetarian dishes are some of the dishes heeng or heeng water is added to. Hing (Asafoetida) is a spice which is extracted from Ferula Assa-Foetida; it is also popular by several other rather interesting names as well like devil’s dung, stinking gum, food of the gods & jowani badian in different parts of the country. Buddhist vegetarians steer clear of eating heeng, as it is one of the 5 spices avoided by them.
Do you know how difficult it is to assemble? It is a resin like gum which is extracted from dried sap of the stem and roots of Ferula plant and then crushed in a traditional method, between heavy stones or by a hammer, this requires a lot of manpower. A species of the herb is found in the desserts of Iran and the mountains of Afganistan, but it is also cultivated in India, mainly in the regions of Kashmir and some parts Punjab. While it’s origins are from the Middle East, but over a period of time Heeng has gained immense popularity across India too.
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Government data states that India imports about 1,200 tonnes of raw heeng worth Rs 600 crore from Iran, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. (Photo: Getty/Thinkstock Images)
The Indian Express
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Explained: Why scientists are trying to cultivate asafoetida or heeng in the Indian Himalayas
How was the asafoetida (heeng) cultivation project set in motion? In how many years will we know if the experiment has been a success?
Asafoetida, or heeng, is a common ingredient in most Indian kitchens –so much so that the country imports Rs 600 crore worth of this pungent flavoured herb every year.
Now, scientists at CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource, Palampur (IHBT), are on a mission to grow heeng in the Indian Himalayas. The first sapling has been planted in Himachal Pradesh’s Kwaring village in Lahaul valley last week.
What is asafoetida and where is it commonly cultivated?
Ferula asafoetida is a herbaceous plant of the umbelliferae family. It is a perennial plant whose oleo gum resin is extracted from its thick roots and rhizome. The plant stores most of its nutrients inside its deep fleshy roots.
Asafoetida is endemic to Iran and Afghanistan, the main global suppliers. It thrives in dry and cold desert conditions. While it is very popular in India, some European countries too use it for its medicinal properties.
How is India entering into heeng cultivation?
Heeng is not cultivated in India. Government data states that India imports about 1,200 tonnes of raw heeng worth Rs 600 crore from Iran, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.
Between 1963 and 1989, India once attempted to procure asafoetida seeds, the ICAR – National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), New Delhi stated. However, there are no published results of the same.
In 2017, IHBT approached NBPGR with an experimental project idea to cultivate heeng in the Indian Himalayas.
For research, heeng seeds were imported from Iran and they remained in the custody of NBPGR. There, the seeds were subjected to a number of tests while being kept under quarantine, to rule out fungal or infectious diseases, possibility of pest attacks and other adverse effects to an area if these seeds were cultivated in fields. This process can take up to two months.
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For readers based in India only:
Times of India: Why ‘Made in India’ heeng is a big deal
