Coriander is a plant that’s cultivated mostly for spice and cooking in the kitchen.
Coriander was used thousands of years ago; this is confirmed by archaeological findings from different countries.
Coriander’s scientific name is Coriandrum sativum and the common name is a kitchen herb.
The shoot system (leaves and shoot) is generally called Cilantro while the seed is coriander.
Not only cilantro (leaves) of the coriander plant can be used for cooking, it’s also used as a medicinal plant.
Coriandrum sativum Plant Origin
In Babylonia and in ancient Egypt, Coriander is used to flavor food but at the same time, it’s also used as a remedy.
The spread of the plant even reached China in ancient times, and in other places like Germany, there are traditions concerning the use of coriander.
Where coriander originally comes from is not known precisely, but it is assumed that this plant grew first in the Mediterranean.
Today, Coriandrum sativum can not be only found in the European continent, but also in Africa, Asia, and America.
Coriander is grown as a crop in different countries.
Coriander, wrongly spelled as Correander, is valuable as a spice and can be found in the ground as a part of the Curry spice.
It is interesting that the plant has different components, so, leaves and also seeds of Cilantro can be used as a condiment.
How to Grow Coriander
The coriander plant is an annual plant.
Coriander can be grown indoors in a big pot as long as the necessary care is given.
The plant grows about 90 cm tall and bears white flowers in midsummer.
Later then, it develops the globular fruits – the dry schizocarp having two semi-globular fruits joined together.
Although the coriander plant needs a warm climate to grow well in all its stages of life, it is quite possible to grow coriander in the garden or in the greenhouse.
If you would like to grow coriander plants in your garden, you should grow it first in a big pot and keep indoors, and transfer it to the farm in the summer.
If you want to grow coriander outside in the summer or indoors in the pot faster, you need a lot of water.
You can also revive the coriander plant with regular irrigation.
Therefore, you should water the plant regularly to make it fresh and healthy.
How to Use Coriander Leaves
The fresh leaves (cilantro) of the coriander plant can be harvested as needed.
In the Mediterranean, the fresh leaves of the young plant can be used in preparing salads and in other dishes
The leaves are often used and this has become popular in the American continent.
Many supermarkets sell the fresh leaves of the coriander plant as cilantro for food preparation.
Cilantro has many other names as stated earlier. For example, in the Mediterranean, it’s called parsley, Asian parsley, or Indian parsley.
Would you like the coriander leaves as a spice, you can find some good recipes, including using the cilantro as a condiment.
Coriander Seeds
The Coriander seed of the Coriandrum sativum plant has a very distinctive taste and smell.
This smell evokes reactions in some people. This can lead to vomiting in some people.
The smell is often compared with the bugs. The reason the reactions do occur is not yet scientifically clarified, but it is now assumed that they are genetically predisposed.
The cilantro, wrongly spelled as Celantro, is used as an alternative remedy, used in different ways, and very valuable. Therefore it is worth in any case to try cilantro itself.
