The leaves and seeds of the plant has been used in traditional medicine for ages to counteract several disorders, such as dysentery, dyspepsia, giddiness spasm, neuralgia, and gastric complaints. C. sativum is useful in food preparation (as a flavoring agent and adjuvant) and preservation as well in preventing food borne diseases and food spoilage.
The seeds, in whole form, or the powder, possessing a mild, sweet, and slight pungent odor, are extensively used as condiments as well in the preparation of curry powder, pickling spices, sausages and seasonings. The seeds are also used as a flavoring agent in different foods namely pastries, cookies, buns, cakes and breads.
The essential oil can be extracted from various parts of plants including the leaves, flowers, stem, seeds, roots and bark; however, the composition of the essential oil can vary among different parts of the same plant.
The seeds of coriander are small, almost ovate globular, approximately 3 to 5 mm in diameter; when dried, are usually brown colored, but in some cases may be offwhite or straw-colored.
The C. sativum oil from fully ripe and dried seeds is a colorless or pale-yellow liquid with a characteristic odor and mild, sweet, warm and aromatic flavor, and linalool is its major constituent. Coriander seed essential oil as well as seed extract possessed antibacterial, antioxidant, anticancer and antimutagenic activities.
Coriander fruit contains about 0.2%–1.5% of volatile oil and 13%–20% of fat oil; however, it has been recorded that some cultivars contain up to 2.6% of volatile oil.
The raw coriander consisted mainly of linalool (72.7%) followed by l-terpinene (8.8%), a pinene (5.5%), camphor (3.7%), limonene (2.3%), geranyl acetate (1.9%) and p-cymene (1.5%). The coriander seed contains plant oil, which is a rich source of the rare monounsaturated isomer of oleic acid, namely petroselinic acid (C18:1n12). The oil composition changes, depending on the maturity of the seed.
Coriander oil has a pleasant odor with odor descriptors, such as floral, turpentine-like, pleasant, green, herbal, cooling, earthy, spicy, sweet, and rose-like.
Coriander: Seeds and essential oil
