Hu Sui
StarCoriandrum sativum L.
Traditionally used for
- Headaches
- Nose & throat
- Colds & fever
- Digestion
Cautions & contraindications
- Allergy risk
☯ TCM Properties
Vents Rashes; Resolves Food Stagnation and Transforms Accumulations; Disperses Wind-Cold from the Exterior; Awakens the Spleen and Harmonizes the Stomach
Traditional Chinese Uses
Hu Sui (fresh coriander or cilantro) is a warm, pungent herb used to facilitate the outward expression of rashes that have been slow to surface, particularly in cases of measles at the early eruptive stage. Its acrid, dispersing quality also benefits poor appetite and the early stages of Wind-Cold with chills, headache, and nasal congestion. As a common culinary herb, it exemplifies the TCM principle of food-as-medicine.
Western Herbalism Properties
Traditional Uses
In the American Southwest, Coriandrum sativum entered Indigenous use following Spanish introduction. The Hopi dipped the plant into stews as a condiment, used the leaves as a flavoring in cooking, and ate them raw and green dipped in water (Fewkes 1896; Whiting 1939; Vestal 1940). The Keresan flavored soups and stews with the seeds (White 1945), and the Zuni ground powdered seeds with chile as a condiment with meat and used the leaves as a salad (Stevenson 1915).
Relationships
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Botanical Description
Coriandrum sativum (Hu Sui, coriander/cilantro) is an annual herb in the Apiaceae family, typically reaching 30 to 70 centimeters in height. Stems are slender, erect, hollow, and branched in the upper portion. Basal leaves are broadly lobed with rounded segments, while upper stem leaves are finely divided into thread-like, pinnatifid segments. The whole plant emits a strong, characteristic aroma when bruised. Small white to pale pink flowers are borne in compound umbels of three to six rays, blooming in early to mid summer. The schizocarp fruits are globose, 3 to 5 millimeters in diameter, ridged, and ripen from green to pale brown; on drying they develop the warm, citrus-sweet aroma valued in cookery and medicine. Native to southern Europe, North Africa, and southwestern Asia, Coriandrum sativum has been cultivated worldwide for millennia as both a culinary herb and a digestive remedy.
Active Constituents
Linalool
Acyclic monoterpene alcoholConcentration: the dominant volatile of the fruit; reported at 40-80% of the seed essential oil, and 62-77% across a survey of commercial coriander fruit oils
Linalool carries most of the odour and most of the studied activity of the fruit oil, with spasmolytic, sedative and antimicrobial effects reported in animal and in vitro work. Its abundance is the reason the fruit (seed) drug and the fresh leaf smell entirely different: the leaf volatile fraction is dominated by aliphatic aldehydes instead.
Geranyl acetate
Monoterpene esterConcentration: up to about 18% of the seed essential oil in some accessions
A secondary ester of the fruit oil that contributes to its sweet, floral top note. It has no separately established clinical activity in this species.
gamma-Terpinene
Monoterpene hydrocarbonConcentration: roughly 0.1-14% of the seed essential oil depending on accession and origin
A minor hydrocarbon of the fruit oil with antioxidant activity in chemical assays. It varies widely between accessions and is one of the markers used to distinguish commercial oils.
Camphor
Bicyclic monoterpene ketoneConcentration: 0-5.6% of commercial fruit essential oils
Present only as a minor constituent of the fruit oil. Camphor is neurotoxic in overdose, which matters only for concentrated essential oil, not for the decocted or culinary herb.
Decanal
Aliphatic aldehydeConcentration: about 4-5% of the seed essential oil in reported analyses
One of the aldehydes responsible for the characteristic pungent-soapy note that is far more prominent in the fresh aerial part than in the fruit.
Coriandrin
FuroisocoumarinConcentration: isolated from the aerial parts; not routinely quantified in commercial material
A highly photoactive furoisocoumarin isolated from Coriandrum sativum together with dihydrocoriandrin. Under UVA it is strongly phototoxic to viruses, but its skin photosensitising activity was reported to be very weak compared with psoralen, and it appears to be metabolised faster than furocoumarins by hepatic mixed-function oxidases.
⚠ Drug Interactions
Insulin and oral hypoglycaemic drugs (metformin, sulfonylureas)
Coriander fruit has a reproducible glucose-lowering effect. In streptozotocin-diabetic rats an ethanol seed extract lowered serum glucose and increased insulin release from pancreatic beta cells, and earlier rat work attributed the effect to increased hepatic glycogen synthase activity with reduced glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis. A randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial of coriander seed powder in type 2 diabetes reported improvement in glycaemic indices. The effect is modest but it is additive with pharmacological glucose lowering.
Clinical note: Ask diabetic patients to monitor capillary glucose for the first two weeks when a coriander seed preparation is started or its dose is raised, and be prepared to reduce the hypoglycaemic drug rather than stopping the herb.
Celery, fennel, caraway, aniseed and mugwort pollen (celery-mugwort-birch-spice cross-reactivity)
Coriander is an Apiaceae spice and a documented member of the celery-mugwort-birch-spice cross-reactivity cluster. A spice-factory worker with undetected occupational sensitisation developed anaphylaxis after eating coriander in a meal, with specific IgE of 1.24 kU/L to coriander; an earlier case documented immediate hypersensitivity with positive skin, nasal and bronchial challenge after three years of occupational exposure to coriander powder, the allergen behaving as a protein. Food-dependent exercise-induced anaphylaxis has been reported within the same syndrome.
Clinical note: Do not prescribe Hu Sui to patients with known birch or mugwort pollen allergy plus reactions to celery, carrot, fennel or caraway without checking. Occupationally exposed patients (spice grinders, food handlers) may be sensitised without ever having reacted to eating it.
Photosensitising drugs and UVA phototherapy
The aerial parts contain the furoisocoumarins coriandrin and dihydrocoriandrin, which are highly photoactive under UVA. Their reported skin photosensitising activity is weak compared with psoralen, so the risk is much lower than with the classic furocoumarin-rich Apiaceae, but occupational contact dermatitis is described in people who pick and process the fresh herb.
Clinical note: Relevant mainly to handlers of the fresh herb, and to patients on psoralen photochemotherapy or other strongly photosensitising drugs. Ingestion of the fruit decoction is not a recognised phototoxicity risk.
Sedatives and CNS depressants (benzodiazepines, z-drugs, alcohol)
A randomised controlled study of 500 mg coriander seed in students reported improvement in anxiety, depression and sleep quality, and linalool, the dominant fruit volatile, is sedative in animal models. No pharmacokinetic or pharmacodynamic interaction study with sedative drugs exists, so this is inference from the herb's own effect rather than a documented interaction.
Clinical note: No action needed at culinary doses. Mention possible drowsiness when a concentrated seed preparation is combined with a hypnotic.
Dosage
| Form | Amount | Frequency | Duration | Population | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| decoction | 6–9 g | Daily | — | — | Standard oral dose per Xi S, Gong Y. Essentials of Chinese Materia Medica and Medical Formulas. Academic Press/Elsevier, 2017, pp. 15–23. Exact wording: Normally, 6–9 g is decocted with water as an oral |
Evidence Tier
Strong evidence · 5 studiesRecorded studies by study design, strongest design at the top. This is a study-design tier only, not a GRADE rating: it does not weigh risk of bias, consistency or precision.
Systematic review / meta-analysis
0
Randomized controlled trial
3
0 verified · 3 unverified
Show 3 studies
- Effects of Coriandrum sativum Syrup on Migraine: A Randomized, Triple-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial
- Effects of Coriandrum sativum seeds on memory, anxiety, depression, and sleep quality in students: a randomized controlled study
- Effects of Dietary Supplementation with Coriander Seed Powder on Serum Lipid Profile, Glycemic Indices, and Oxidative Stress Biomarkers in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial
Other clinical trial
0
Observational / case report
0
In vitro / animal
2
1 verified · 1 unverified
Other / unclassified
0
Verified: design read from PubMed for a DOI that resolves to the cited paper Unverified: taken from the study's recorded description
Clinical Studies
Effects of Coriandrum sativum Syrup on Migraine: A Randomized, Triple-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial
Sixty-eight migraineurs on sodium valproate were randomised to add Coriandrum sativum fruit syrup or placebo for one month. The coriander arm showed greater reduction in the duration and frequency of attacks and in pain severity than placebo. It is an add-on trial, not a monotherapy trial, and the syrup was not chemically standardised.
Effects of Coriandrum sativum seeds on memory, anxiety, depression, and sleep quality in students: a randomized controlled study
University students aged 18-25 were randomised to 500 mg Coriandrum sativum seed or placebo and assessed for memory, anxiety, depression and sleep quality. The coriander arm improved on the psychological and sleep measures relative to placebo. The sample is young and healthy, so the result does not transfer directly to a clinical anxiety or insomnia population.
Effects of Dietary Supplementation with Coriander Seed Powder on Serum Lipid Profile, Glycemic Indices, and Oxidative Stress Biomarkers in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial
Adults with type 2 diabetes received coriander seed powder or placebo in a double-blind design, with serum lipids, glycaemic indices and oxidative stress biomarkers measured before and after. The trial is small and single-centre, and it is the published version of a study that circulated for several years as a preprint, so effect sizes should be treated as preliminary.
Effect of coriander seed (Coriandrum sativum L.) ethanol extract on insulin release from pancreatic beta cells in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats
An ethanol extract of Coriandrum sativum seed at 200 mg/kg lowered serum glucose in streptozotocin-diabetic rats and increased beta-cell activity and insulin release compared with diabetic controls, giving a mechanism for the glucose-lowering seen in the human trials.
Coriandrum sativum — mechanism of hypoglycemic action
Dietary coriander seed in rats raised hepatic glycogen through increased glycogen synthase activity, reduced glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis, and increased glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and glycolytic enzyme activity, indicating greater glucose disposal through glycolysis and the pentose phosphate pathway.
⚠ Safety & Contraindications
- Allergy risk
Contraindications
Its use is prohibited in patients with exuberant heat toxin accompanied by inhibited eruption.
Source: Xi S, Gong Y. Essentials of Chinese Materia Medica and Medical Formulas. Academic Press/Elsevier, 2017, pp. 15–23.
Historical Texts
Qi Min Yao Shu
Northern Wei dynasty (6th century CE)Jia You Ben Cao
Song dynasty (1057-1060)Ben Cao Gang Mu
Ming dynasty (1596)References
- Ismail F, Ismail WU, Muhammad G, Hussain MA, Zulfiqar Z. Phytochemistry, Pharmacological Attributes, and Clinical Evaluations of Coriandrum sativum: A Comprehensive Review . Natural Product Communications (2025) [DOI]
- Satyal P, Setzer WN. Chemical Compositions of Commercial Essential Oils From Coriandrum sativum Fruits and Aerial Parts . Natural Product Communications (2020) [DOI]
- Ceska O, Chaudhary SK, Warrington P, Ashwood-Smith MJ, Bushnell GW, Poulton GA. Coriandrin, a novel highly photoactive compound isolated from Coriandrum sativum . Phytochemistry (1988) [DOI]
- Ebo DG, Bridts CH, Mertens MH, Stevens WJ. CORIANDER ANAPHYLAXIS IN A SPICE GRINDER WITH UNDETECTED OCCUPATIONAL ALLERGY . Acta Clinica Belgica (2006) [DOI]
- Baek CH, Bae YJ, Cho YS, Moon HB, Kim TB. Food-dependent exercise-induced anaphylaxis in the celery-mugwort-birch-spice syndrome . Allergy (2010) [DOI]
This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace professional medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before using any herbal remedy, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, or taking medications.
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