My guess would be Asafoetida—it is used a lot in middle eastern cooking (giant fennel). Tastes great after you cook it, but it stinks to high heaven before cooked. It is a smell that would go away quickly after you shut the box lid. You can probably find it at an Indian food store (where it might be called Hing) or middle eastern food store.

Foetid is Latin, I think, and is the same as the English root for fetid (having a heavily offensive smell).