Dictionary.net

It is in small masses of a whitish, reddish, and violet hue, adhering together. Taste bitter and subacrid: smell insupportably alliaceous. The Asiatics use it regularly as a condiment. Its medical properties are antispasmodic, stimulant, and anthelmintic. Dose, gr. v to xx, in pill.

see Asafetida

n. [Latin] A fetid inspissated sap from the East Indies, much used in medicine.

A gum or resin brought from the East Indies, of a sharp taste, and a strong offensive smell.