Exploring Nature, get to know the unknown - African / Mexican coriander

This exotic herb is known in different parts of the world in different names. Here it is known as "African coriander" (African malli, in Malayalam, our mother tongue). The popular names include Mexican coriander, Farang coriander, culantro, spirit weed, fit weed, saw-tooth coriander, saw-leaf coriander, bandhani yah, long coriander etc.

From what I read from the web this herb is widely used for culinary purposes in South America, the Far East, and Africa. It is popular in Assam and Manipur in India; in South India, it is not very common. Hope my blogger friends will enlighten us about this beautiful herb's popularity in their countries.

This herb has a flavor similar to coriander/cilantro, the difference is this is stronger and intense. We may need only a small portion of its leaf to garnish our dishes compared to the more common coriander leaves.

This has two types of leaves. The leaves that are at the lower portion of the plant are long and are about an inch in breadth. They have saw-tooth like spines at their edges. Not at all thorny, they are smooth :). The rosette-like leaves are also present in my plant, they are also palatable. Hope it will flower soon.

The above plant was small when brought from my ancestral home with my mom's permission. She has one more there. They use it regularly in dishes. This is grown in a purely organic way. The potting mix is the same I used to grow ladies finger; details of which you can get from my post about growing ladies finger - the organic way.
http://magicalpresent.blogspot.in/2015/03/organic-okra-ladys-finger-cultivation.html

She has grown well in her new place here with me. I guess she is happy to meet you all, my blogger friends :) She is no fussy plant; requires only little Sun and water.

This exotic herb has been claimed to be having many health benefits besides the culinary uses like garnishing, marinating and seasoning.

The claims include properties like:

• anti-diabetic
• anticonvulsant
• anti-cancerous
• anti-bacterial
• anti-inflammatory
• analgesic

In traditional medicine, it is used for treating hypertension, fever, worm infestation, burns etc. Well, nothing has been proved by well-controlled double-blind studies nor there are uniform acceptance and agreement among the researchers, like in the case of many other herbs said to be having medicinal value. So always get the advice of a qualified doctor before use.

It is actually fun in having a leisure time activity like gardening. Growing herbs, spices, and medicinal plants, as well as flowering plants, are cool ways to bring positive energy. It has become a productive hobby as well in the present day world, considering the value of organically grown produce. Such cool stuff is always in demand all over the world. There are many more exotic herbs still not very well known to people, having unique medicinal values. Besides they improve health in natural ways. The end result is we all feel better!

Enjoy exploring Nature...! Let this also be a cool method to reduce the skyrocketing stress levels. Help the needy, suffering fellow human beings. Identify such rare plants, spread awareness and push the scientific community to conduct research to validate medicinal value claims.

Such activities bring a lot of happiness to everyone. Remember, happiness is our birthright.

The botanical name of this herb is Eryngium foetidum.

• There are many things still unknown to us in nature. Some things may seem so common, but they may be priceless. Nature still has many secrets and we have just begun unveiling those.

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