Scientific Name Coriandurm sativum Linn<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Family Apiaceae 

Used Part Fruits

Distribution Area It is extensively grown in India and Nepal.

Common Uses The fruits including seeds are stimulant, pectoral, antipyretic and anthelmintic. An infusion of fruits in combination with cardamom and caraway seeds is given in intestinal disorders. The   fruits are also given in spermatorrhoea, leucorrhoea and in rheumatic fever. Coriander is also used as an ingredient in many Ayurvedic medicines prescribed for curing indigestion, diarrhoea,   dysentery and urinary troubles. An infusion of the seeds is useful in flatulence, indigestion, vomitting and other intestinal  disorders; it is also used in bleeding piles, rheumatism, neuralgia, caphalagia, and locally in eye-infection. Dried seeds are reported  to possess diuretic and aphrodisiac properties.

The   fruits are acrid, astringent, aromatic, analgesic, emollient, thermogenic, anti-inflamatory, antihelmintic, stomachic, carminative, digestive, appetiser, constipating, diuretic, antipyretic, stimulatnt, expectorant  and anodyne and are useful in vitiated conditions of pitta burnign sensation, cough , bronchitis, pharyngopathy, vomitting dyspepsia, anorexia, colic, flatulence, diarrhoea, dysentery, chronic conjuctivitis, cephelagia, epistaxis, erysipelas, stangury, dropsy, scrofula, helminthiasis, haemorrohoids, intermittent fever, hyperdipsia,gout, rheumatism and giddiness.

    Its prescribed in dyspepsia, inflammation or gastro-intestinal tract, burning sensation of body, nausea and broncial disorders. It is  commonly employed as an aromatic to various drug  formulations.  The main preparations are Dhanyakaadi him, Dhanya panchak kwaatha, Abhyaristha lvanabhaskar chruna and Guduchyadi  kwaatha.The fruits are considered carminative, diuretic, tonic, stomachic, antibilious, refrigerant and aphrodisiac. They are used chiefly to conceal the odour of other medicines and to correct the griping qualities of rhubarb and senna. The seeds are chewed to correct foul breath. They are considered also to lessen the intoxicating effects of spirituous liquors.

Similar crude drugs Commercial oil is extensively adulterated  with sweet orange oil, cedar-wood oil, turpentine and anethole or aniseed oil.

Others   The fruits are  extensively employed as condiment in the  preparation of curry powder, pickling spices, sausages and seasonings. They are used for flavouring    pastry, cookies, buns and cakes, and tobacco products.

The oil is used chiefly as a flavouring agent for spirituous liquors    and in cocoa and chocolate industries. It is also employed in medicine as a carminative or as a flavouring agent to cover the taste or correct    the nauseating or griping qualities of other medicines. It has the advantage of being more stable and of retaining its agreeable odour    longer than any other oil of its class. Decylaldehyde   (yield, 0.1% of the wt. of coriander oil) obtained by treating the oil  with bisulphite, is reported to be useful for perfumery purposes.