# Coriander (Coriandrum sativum)

**Coriandrum**

**Known today as.** *Coriandrum sativum*, seed and leaf.

Kind: Plant

## What was it used for?

The seed, candied or powdered, for wind and the stomach, and to temper strong purges.

## What does modern science say?

A mild carminative.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **linalool**: 60–80 per cent of the fruit oil
- **geranyl acetate**: 
- **decanal and (E)-2-decenal**: the “soapy” aldehydes of the leaf

**Mechanism.** Linalool relaxes gut muscle and is mildly sedative in animals; the fruit is a carminative, which is why it tempered the purges; the soap taste of the leaf tracks a variant of the olfactory receptor OR6A2.

**Dose.** Safe as food; contact allergy is reported in cooks.

**Standing.** No EMA monograph of its own: the fruit is assessed by the EMA only as a component of the digestive tea mixtures (*Species digestivae*), and the German Commission E lists it for dyspepsia.

## What lore surrounds it?

Folkard notes that in Numbers manna “is likened to Coriander-seed,” that the bitter coriander is one of the Mishna's five “bitter herbs” of the Passover, and that “its seeds, when covered with sugar, form the well-known Coriander comfits.” Robert Turner says the powdered seed in wine stimulates the passions, and Gerarde “affirms that the juice of the green leaves, ‘taken in the quantity of four dragmes, killeth and poisoneth the body.’”

## What did the older authorities say?

**Exodus.** The manna in the wilderness “was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.”

## Sources

- Exodus 16:31.
- Numbers 11:7.
- Folkard, R. (1884). *Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics*, “Coriander.” Project Gutenberg #44638.
- EMA/HMPC (2024). *Assessment report on Species digestivae*.
- Blumenthal, M., ed. (1998). *The Complete German Commission E Monographs*, “Coriander seed.”
- Eriksson, N., et al. (2012). “A genetic variant near olfactory receptor genes influences cilantro preference.” *Flavour* 1.

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*Coriander.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-01. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/coriander

Historical description, not medical advice.