What Is Asafoetida Powder?
Asafoetida is a culinary herb and the roots of this Rhizome plant are dried to form a gum-like substance. This dried latex (gum) is Asafoetida. It has a foul/pungent smell and is more commonly called as Hing in India. This plant is a native of Iranian countries and Afghanistan. However, its widespread use and cultivation is also prevalent in and nearby the Indian Sub-continent. The main reason for which this herbal dried extract was promoted as an edible spice was its capability to offer a smooth texture to curries and soups. While it is famous with many other interesting names like food of the Gods and a few more, such names are an attribute to its never-ending health and beauty benefits it offers upon consumption (1).
Skin Benefits Of Asafoetida
1. Anti-Ageing Benefits:
This herbal spice makes an amazing anti-ageing agent. It offers the goodness of reducing wrinkles, fine lines and age spots from the face. Asafoetida can be mixed with rose water and fuller’s earth to form an effective anti-wrinkle face mask (2).
How To Make An Anti-Wrinkle Face Mask?
This amazing face mask offers freedom from wrinkles and age spots. It has the power to make you look 10 years less than your actual age.
2. Skin Whitening Benefits:
Asafoetida can be used as a whitening agent that demotes dark spots, acne marks, and oiliness. It naturally hampers the production of Tyrosine in the skin. Tyrosine promotes the production of melanin in human skin that leads to skin darkening, premature aging, and dullness. Asafoetida keeps a check on the production of tyrosine. Thus, you can flaunt blemish-free and radiant, younger skin with the use of Asafoetida face masks largely (3), (4).
How To Make A Whitening Face Mask?
This amazing face mask can improve your complexion by up to 2 tones naturally.
3. Anti-Acne Benefits:
Do you have acne-prone skin? Asafoetida might be just the magic ingredient that you were missing in your skin care regimen till now. This amazing herbal formula hampers the production of acne-causing bacteria on the skin. It makes skin conditions unfavorable for the growth of bacteria. Thus, it can put an end to your year’s long acne as well (5).
How To Make An Anti-Acne Face Mask?
This amazing face mask keeps you safe from acne and acne marks largely. Use it regularly twice a day for optimal results. Asafoetida controls the formation of excessive oil in the skin. This keeps your pores free of dirt, oil, and sebum. Thus, eventually, acne clears off from the skin completely.
4. Radiance Promoting Benefits:
Asafoetida works like a radiance enhancer that imparts a never-ending glow to the skin. It increases the supply of oxygen to facial tissues, which makes them lively and plump. It gives you beautiful, healthy skin. The best side-benefit of this radiance promotion benefit is the removal of under eye dark circles completely (3), (4).
How To Make A Radiance Face Pack?
This amazing face pack increases glow and makes skin radiant and flawless.
5. Anti-Dryness Benefits:
Pollution and stress leave the skin and hair dry and damaged. Asafoetida works like a dryness repairing agent that offers smooth and moist skin. It can erase all the visible signs of skin dryness like dullness, peeling, cracking, freckles, wrinkles, and pigmentation (6).
How To Make Dryness Repellent Face Mask?
6. Treats Allergies And Corns:
Other than making the skin blemish-free, Asafoetida also works to cure skin allergies and corns. Different skin allergies resulting from sun damage or dryness can be cured using Asafoetida within a few weeks of use (5).
Hair Benefits Of Asafoetida
7. Hair Conditioning Benefits:
Asafoetida can also be used to make hair conditioning masks. It effectively works to trap moisture in the scalp. This amazing benefit makes it a deep moisturizing product that can control the problem of hair dryness and frizz to a large extent (5).
How To Make A Conditioning Hair Mask?
This amazing hair mask offers the goodness of improving scalp health against dryness. It makes hair smooth, shiny, and stronger too.
8. Hair Fall Controlling Benefits:
Asafoetida improves the texture of the hair. It also guards the hair against un-natural and heavy hair fall. It is therefore used as a solution to baldness in males and thin hair in females. You must look forward to the amazing hair follicle strengthening and dandruff controlling benefits of Asafoetida, since it controls hair fall and makes hair thicker.
9. Scalp Health Maintenance:
Scalp gives rise to hair follicles. When the scalp health dis-orients, it directly turns the hair roots weaker. This leads to hair fall and hair damage. Asafoetida restores and maintains the normal PH level of the scalp. It also keeps the scalp safe from sweat, oil and acne. It naturally removes the scalp issues like acne, oil, dandruff and dryness. As a result, the overall hair strength, texture and quality improve (5).
Health Benefits Of Asafoetida
10. Anti-Viral Benefits:
This is just the beginning of a long list of health benefits this amazing herbal spice offers. Latest studies have proven that Asafoetida constricts and hampers the growth and reproduction of harmful viruses like H1N1. When this herbal spice comes in contact with the influenza causing virus H1N1, it triggers the production of natural antibiotics against a viral attack. Detailed researches and independent studies are being carried out until today to find more about the amazing benefits of this herbal formula against other viral agents as well. To sum up, this amazing edible ingredient offers strong immunity against influenza viral infection (7).
11. Anti-Asthmatic Benefits:
Asthma and bronchitis are two acute respiratory syndromes. Asafoetida is a natural foe to these respiratory syndromes largely. It triggers the production of natural antibodies as soon as a person catches cold. This powerful boost in immunity triggers the process of easing respiration. Thus, it is a powerful remedy against cold, asthma and bronchitis (8).
12. Anti-Epileptic Benefits:
The amazing Asafoetida health benefits are not just curtailed to the traditional means of treating cough and cold. The spice is also a powerful anti-epileptic Unani medicine. Unani is the ancient science of treating diseases. It is still prevalent and a natural way of preventing diseases largely. However, be careful of using Asafoetida as a preventive measure against epilepsy. In cases of having confirmed epilepsy, you must seek the advice of a certified doctor (8).
13. Digestive Benefits:
Current lifestyle, devoid of much movement and physical work, leads to digestive problems easily. Asafoetida is a natural armor of preventing and curing such digestive issues easily. It flushes out the toxins from the human digestive tract. It is a natural foe to such toxins that slow down the process of digestion in humans. Thus, it helps in easing the process of proper digestion by restoring the normal PH level of the stomach. It successfully offers freedom from the most common problem of improper digestion i.e constipation Asafoetida also has carminative and antiflatulent properties. Thus, it reduces flatulence and stomach-related discomfort. Adding 1-2 pinch of hing in buttermilk helps to improve digestion and reduces bloating.
14. Healing Benefits:
Asafoetida has an ancient history of being used as healing medicine for stomach injuries as well. Current studies have proven the efficiency of this marvelous herbal genius in treating wounds and burns. Direct application to wounds in the form of a paste reduces the wound appearance and lessens pain too (10).
15. Opium Antidote:
Asafoetida offers the goodness of being used as an antidote for Opium. It has a history of treating gall bladder infections and various other stomach problems. It is also a powerful digestion enhancer. All this proves its efficiency as an opium antidote (1).
16. Anti-Acidic Benefits:
Asafoetida works like a natural alkali that dilutes excessive acids in the stomach. It eases intestinal gastric issues as well. Thus, it is an amazing anti-flatulent agent that eases gastric and acidic pain (9).
17. Contraceptive Benefits:
Modern science is still working towards finding the contraceptive benefits of Asafoetida. However, historically this herbal spice has been used as a powerful contraceptive against unwanted pregnancy. It was historically used as an abortive pill as well. Thus, be careful of using this spice if you are pregnant or breastfeeding a child (11), (12).
18. Mood Elevating Benefits:
Asafoetida is also known for its mood-elevating benefits. This is not a drug, but a herbal formula that triggers the production of happiness hormone and hampers the production of stress. This is a powerful stress managing spice that should be used with caution. Do not incline to its use if you have a declared history of mania (1).
19. Anti-Depressive Benefits:
Asafoetida has historically been used as an anti-depressive medicine. Its ability to induce happiness and decrease the thoughts of failure and negativity makes it a powerful natural anti-depressant too (13).
20. Increases Metabolism:
This amazing health benefit aids multiple health issues. Asafoetida increases the body’s metabolism largely. This improves digestion. Thus, it triggers fat metabolism too. This hampers the circulation of LDL (bad cholesterol) in human blood. Thus, Asafoetida keeps you safe of all the heart problems resulting from cholesterol formation and accumulation. However, research is limited in this regard.
21. Increases Physical Well Being:
Asafoetida works towards increasing and maintaining the heart health. It is also a beneficial respiratory medicine against cough and breathing issues. Thus, it is clear that this herbal spice increases the supply of blood to all tissues and cells. This increases and ensures that every cell gets the required oxygen content. Thus, it reduces physical fatigue by offering the tired tissues a chance to get repaired (9).
22. Anti-Impotency Benefits:
Asafoetida is a powerful natural ingredient that can be used to treat a few problems related to impotency. It increases sexual drive in females and offers freedom from the problem of premature ejaculation largely. It is already a proven stress regulator. This also aids in improving the sexual drive of males (14).
23. Worm Repellent:
Maybe, the pungent smell of Asafoetida works in favor of its worms repelling benefit. It should be taken at night with warm water. It flushes out the intestinal worms when taken regularly with Ajwain (9).
24. Eases Menstrual Cramps:
Menstrual Cramps are nightmares for all women suffering from them. Asafoetida eases this problem by reducing pain sensation around the waist and lower abdomen. Thus, it can be used at times of extreme menstrual cramps to ease an ongoing pain sensation (5). The above listed 24 amazing skin, hair and health benefits make Asafoetida a miracle edible discovery. This simple cooking ingredient offers such wonderful health benefits that can make you look at least 10 years younger to your actual age. However, benefits always come with simple precautions. Several chemicals in hing have blood-thinning properties, so it may increase bleeding risks. It may also slow blood clots due to its anticoagulant properties. In addition, it can exacerbate seizure symptoms, so people with epilepsy should consult a physician before taking it. Be careful while using Asafoetida if you have a history of drug addiction, alcoholism, mania and depression. Always consult a doctor in cases of extreme medical emergencies. Can hing be taken daily? Hing can be consumed daily. People with high blood pressure levels may include hing in their daily diet to control their blood pressure levels. What are the side effects of hing? Hing is considered safe for many people. However, it may cause diarrhea, headache, gas, burping, and convulsions. Does hing reduce belly fat? Yes. A study on rats found that hing could reduce body weight and abdominal fat (15). However, further studies are required to prove its benefits in humans. Is hing good for the liver? Yes. The intake of hing can help improve liver health and prevent liver steatosis (fatty liver disease) (15). How much asafoetida should I use? There is no recommended dosage of asafoetida. The proportion of diluted hing powder (for cooking) often ranges between a pinch and 250 g, depending on the dishes and taste preferences.
