Pharmacology and Phytochemistry of Coriander

Introduction

The genus Coriandrum has included two species, the cultivated species C. sativum and wild species C. tordylium. The name ‘cilantro’ has been randomly as well as frequently employed in American English which is referred to as green herb or dried leaves. The origin of Coriandrum sativum is still unknown; even many authors and scientists have described coriander to be as a wild plant in nature. But no specific information is available about the same fact. In 1780, Linnaeus had reported coriander occurred as a weed in cereals (Diederichsen, 1996).The ‘Coriandrum' is coined from koros, referring to the disagreeable odor of the leaves (Shelef, 2003).

• Family:Umbelliferae Juss. ;455 genera; 3600-3751 species

• Subfamily:Apioideae Drude; 404 genera; 2827-2936 species

• Tribe:Coriandreae W. Koch; 8 genera; 21 species

• Genera:Bifora F. Hoffm.;3 species

• Common Names Used Worldwide (Diederichsen, 1996).

• Arab :kuzbara, kuzbura

• Armenian :chamem

• Chinese :yuan sui, hu sui

• Czec :koriandr

• Danish :koriander

• Dutc :koriander

• English :coriander, collender, chinese parsley

• Ethiopian :dembilal

• French :coriandre, persil arabe

• Georgian :kinza, kindza, kindz

• German :koriander, Wanzendill, Schwindelkorn

• Greek :koriannon, korion

• Hindi :dhania, dhanya

• Hungarian :coriander

• Italian :coriandolo

• Japanese :koendoro

• Malay :ketumbar

• Persian :geshnes

• Polish :kolendra

• Portuguese :coentro

• Rumanian :coriándru

• Russian :koriandr, koljandra, ki nec, kinza, vonju ee zel’e, klopovnik

• Sanskrit :dhanayaka, kusthumbari

• Spanish :coriandro, cilantro, cilandrio, culantro

• Swiss :chrapfechörnli, Böbberli, Rügelikümmi

• Turkish :kisnis

• Vernacular Indian Names(Diederichsen, 1996).

• Bengali : dhane, dhania

• Gujarati : kothmiri, konphir, libdhane

• Kannada : kothambri, kothmiri bija

• Kashmiri : daaniwal, kothambalari

• Malayalam : kothumpkalari bija, kothumpalari

• Marathi :dhana, kothimber

• Oriya : dhania

• Punjabi : dhania

• Tamil : kothamali

• Telugu : dhaniyalu

Habitat And Cultivation

The plant was brought from east Egypt to Southern Europe by Romans. Now, it has been found in North Africa, Russia, USA, and India (Shelef, 2003). The crop is cultivated as Kharif or as rabi crop. It requires light to heavy black soil, followed by a drilling method. It is occasionally rotated with wheat, grain, jowar and onion; and even also has grown along with cotton, or sugarcane as a mixed crop (Kokate, 2007).