Sagapenum

Sagapenum (Greek σᾰγάπηνον,[1] σικβινίτζα (Du Cange),[2] σεραπίων;[3] Arabic sakbīnadj;[4] Latin sagapenum,[5] sagapium,[3] seraphinum (Pharm. Witenbergica)[2]) is a historical plant from Media, identified with Ferula persica L.,[1][3] Ferula scuntziana (Umbelliferae),[6] or Ferula scowitziana,[4] also denoting its yellow translucent balsam, which causes irritation of the skin and whose smell resembles that of asafoetida.

History

Pliny (Historia Naturalis 12.126, 19.167, 20.197) holds that sagapenum is similar to ammoniacum, and mentions its use in adultering laser.[5]

According to Dioscorides (De materia medica 3.85, 95), sagapenum smells like silphium and galbanum, and has expectorant, topical, anti-convulsant, and abortifacient properties.[6]

References
  1. Henry Liddell; Robert Scott, eds. (1897), "σᾰγάπηνον", Greek-English Lexicon (8th ed.), Harper & Brothers, p. 1371
  2. Immanuel Löw (1881), Aramäische Pflanzennamen, Engelmann, p. 191
  3. Bernhard Langkavel (1866), Botanik der späteren Griechen, Berggold, p. 40
  4. A. Dietrich (1995), "ṢAMGH", The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 8 (2nd ed.), Brill, pp. 1042–1043
  5. "sagapēnum", Oxford Latin Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 1968, p. 1679
  6. Dioscorides (1902), "Sagapenum", in Julius Berendes (ed.), De materia medica (PDF), PharmaWiki.ch, p. 192
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