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| Coriandrum sativum |
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- Don't you like coriander? Not me. I have a visceral intolerance to this plant,
which seems to be harmless and so appreciated by many people. Recently, I
learned that coriander (or cilantro) has garnered considerable attention and
has even been subject of genetic research, so it divides taste opinions (links
at the end of the text).
According to the researchers, two main factors may be related to whether or not we
like coriander, although no definitive verdict has been established. One of the
factors would be the custom of using it in traditional dishes of certain
regions of the planet, thus favoring its inhabitants to get used and to like
it. But even in these places, there are some people who have a real aversion to
the ingredient, which has led some researchers to consider a genetic cause as a
second factor.
There are so many foods and
so many spices that some people like and others do not, and nobody cares. I
think in the case of coriander, what has intrigued scientists is the intensity
of the aversion. Why such a loathing?
In the early 2000s, Charles
Wysocki, a neuroscience researcher at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, tested hundreds of identical and fraternal twins
attending the twins’ festival in Ohio, and found in about 80% of identical twins
the same reaction to the plant, compared to about 41% in non-identical, which
suggested a genetic substrate for this feature.
In an attempt to identify a
genetic basis, two other studies were conducted, one of them by Lilli Mauer
from the University of Toronto, Canada, in 2011, and the other one by Nicholas Eriksson's
team, from the company 23andMe, in California, in 2012. Both studies revealed
variants in olfactory receptor genes, and Canadian research has also
demonstrated differences in bitter taste receptor genes related to coriander
responses.
It would be interesting to
have more studies on this subject. There is a consensus that aversion is caused
by the smell of the plant. Even though I have an intense aversion to its scent,
I think there is something more than that. I think the aroma is the most obvious
element, but it's not the only motivator of this visceral rejection. At least
in my case, the magnitude of the reaction is much greater, although the smell
of the plant also plays an important role in the aversion it causes.
At my parents' house, we've
never been fond of elaborated spicy recipes. We used the essentials, that is,
salt, garlic and onion, cooking oil, sometimes parsley, if so much. And it was
very good! At most, a kind of pepper, which my mother loved.
For a while, we had a more
creative cook, who decided to go shopping for ingredients to cook. Probably,
she was tired of the taste monotony at home. One day, when I started eating, I
had the impression of having swallowed something strange, but I did not know if
it was the taste or the smell that had displeased me. And it displeased me so
much that I had to hurry up to vomit, an act that I have some difficulty doing,
in other nauseating situations. I have already eaten food that I did not like,
out of politeness, without problem, but this time, it was as if my stomach was
telling me, peremptorily: "- not
that!"
I couldn't swallow anything
else on this plate because I noticed there was a disgusting smell. Even
stranger, nobody at the table noticed this smell on my plate, only me. I asked
the cook if there was something unusual with the food and she said, “- Oh, I bought coriander today and I decided
to use it for seasoning.” Then she took some remaining leaves and made me
smell them. It was exactly that smell and I had the same reaction again.
Needless to say, I have been far away from coriander ever since. In addition,
this episode reminded me once I had eaten seafood... I'm sure that meal had coriander.
After knowing the results of
this scientific research, I think I must have this genetic trait. I'm relieved,
it was not an unfounded crisis.
Years later... I confirmed
my intolerance when I applied a hand cream and my hands went itchy and red. I
was not thinking of coriander and I did not even know it could be in the
composition of a cream. Because of the allergic type reaction, I was curious to
read the ingredients: and coriander was on the list!
I think this aversion is a
manifestation of something more complex. Hopefully more studies will come out.
~~~~
P.S.: these genetic studies, which
found the sensitivity to aldehydes, remind me of a test performed in a
practical laboratory class when I was a medical student. The teacher made us
smell a substance that, if I remember correctly, contained aldehyde, to show us
that some people were able to notice the smell, others not.
~~~~
Image by Franz Eugen Köhler,
Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen - List of Koehler Images, Public domain,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=255535
Studies references:
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