Description

Coriandrum sativum, coriander or dhania, is a slender annual herb of the family Apiaceae, native to the eastern Mediterranean, the Near East, and possibly the Caucasus region, now cultivated globally as one of the world’s most universally consumed culinary plants. India is the world’s largest producer and consumer of coriander seed, with Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat as primary producing states. The rounded, ribbed dried fruits contain linalool and geraniol-dominated essential oils with a characteristic warm, citrus-floral fragrance. Documented in Egyptian papyri of 1000 BCE, the Old Testament (Book of Exodus), the Charaka Samhita as Dhanyaka, in Dioscorides, Avicenna, and in all major world pharmacopoeial traditions, coriander is the most consistently cross-culturally documented culinary-medicinal herb in recorded human history. Incorporated in carminative, digestive, and cooling Ayurvedic and Unani preparations.