How Does This Ayurvedic Food Improve Wellness?
CONSTITUTIONAL MEDICINE INSIGHTS
![Recipes with Hing (Asafoetida): Sweet Lime Pickle]()
Recipes with Hing (Asafoetida): Sweet Lime Pickle
Hing & Digestion
In Ayurveda, hing is used to aid digestion, cure colic, and stagnation in the GI tract. Hing burns ama. It is a primary herb for Vata. It is a key ingredient in the formula
hingvastak churna, a major digestive formula in Ayurveda.
In western herbalism, hing reduces the growth of flora in the gut, especially candida, directly reducing gas. It destroys worms and has anti-viral properties. It was used to fight the flu during WWI.
Hing & Nervous System
Hing is a powerful antispasmodic useful in cough, asthma, intestinal colic, and uterine spasms. It nourishes the nervous tissue in case of stagnation with high Vata, sciatica, paralysis, and epilepsy.
Hing, Gynecology, and Reproduction
The hot and stimulating qualities of hing clear stagnation in circulation (vyana vayu) due to obstruction by high Kapha thus warming the uterus and stimulating menstruation. Hing prevents spasms and is used with ashoka and turmeric for painful menses (dysmenorrhea).
Hing treats low libido, impotence, and encourages ovulation and fertility where the uterus is congested from Kapha. Curiously, it has also been used as a contraceptive, perhaps by employing the anthelminthic qualities topically to destroy semen. Hing is abortifascient and should not be used in pregnancy.
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About Hing (Asafoetida)
Also known as devil's dung, stinking gum, food of the gods, and giant fennel, hing has a varied and suprising diversity of uses. Along the Tex-Mex border hing was used for wolf bait. The odor attracts wolves. In Jamaica, hing is used to protect the fontanel of newborn babies from spirits. Once common in Europe during Roman times, hing is relatively unknown to the modern western palate. It's latin name, asafoetida, literally means fetid-resin and attests to it's unique smell and derivation process from root sap.
![Recipes with Hing (Asafoetida): Apple Chutney with Indian Spices]()
Recipes with Hing (Asafoetida): Apple Chutney with Indian Spices
Cooking Hing (Asafoetida)
As the most mysterious of the famous root spices (turmeric, hing, ginger, garlic, onion), hing has a lot to teach us! In general, root spices impart warm, hearty, grounding, rustic and savory flavors.
Cooks commonly employ hing in daals, kitcharis, and other lentil dishes to make them more digestible.
One user of our website quotes, "Hing fried in ghee mellows to the point where it becomes less like wolf-bait and more like warm garlicky goodness." Use mellow, fried hing for digestive, nervous, and gynacological disorders. Raw hing may be used for chest conditions requiring stimulation.
Buying & Preparation
Asafoetida is in the carrot family. Typically the resin is extracted from the roots. Then, to dilute the potency, the resin is made into a compound with 30% hing resin, rice or wheat flour, and gum arabic. One of our users recommends, "I keep it double wrapped in my cupboard lest it stink up the joint!" We agree. Pure hing turns milky white when dissolved into water .
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Constitutional Medicine Insights
Impact Report: On tongue, nerves, elimination, etc.
Indications & Uses: What it Improves
Metabolic Effects & Herbal Actions
Contraindications / Aggravates
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