Featured in the Los Angeles Times: September 11, 2009
Asafoetida, a plant resin so foul-smelling that it is often known as "devil’s dung" (It's not THAT bad - it's used in place of garlic in Hare Krsna cuisine - TTF), has a millenniums-old history as a herbal remedy. Chemists Yang-Chang Wu and Fang-Rong Chang of Kaohsiang Medical University in Taiwan and their colleagues extracted a variety of chemicals from the roots of the plant and reported in the Journal of Natural Products that at least four of them were more active against influenza viruses than prescription antiviral drugs such as amantadine.The chemicals, primarily members of a family of compounds called sesquiterpenes, might serve as lead candidates for development of new antiviral drugs, they said.
Many essential oils contain sequiterpenes, including: chamomile, rose, sandalwood (a-santalol) as well as ginger, patchouli, vetiver, carrot seed, everlasting and valerian.
Read the article: Influenza A (H1N1) Antiviral and Cytotoxic Agents from Ferula assa-foetida from the Journal of Natural Products — a high-impact leader publishing research relating to the chemistry and/or biochemistry of naturally occurring compounds or the biology of living systems from which they are obtained.