Coriander
Crushed coriander seeds: dry, peppery, lemony and gently woody, with a faint herbal warmth.
You may know it from Coriander seeds in curry or pickles
Where it comes from
Steam-distilled from coriander seeds; also reproduced with aroma chemicals.
Botanical name: Coriandrum sativum
Worth knowing
This usually means the spicy seeds, not cilantro’s green leaves.
About coriander
Coriander is Coriandrum sativum, an annual herb of the carrot family, and perfumery treats its two parts as separate materials. Oil from the dried seeds is built mostly on linalool and is warmer in character. Oil from the fresh leaves, sold as cilantro, is made of fatty unsaturated aldehydes. A perfumery glossary gives (E)-2-decenal at 16 to 47% of cilantro oil, with decanal at 5 to 19%. The leaf is a stingy source: a study of four cultivars found only about 0.03 to 0.04% oil by fresh weight.
Seed oil is described by The Good Scents Company as fresh, diffusive and spicy-aromatic over a woody, peppery background, with floral, bois-de-rose, herbal and terpenic facets listed beside it. How much linalool it holds depends on the sample. An Iranian oil measured 57.57% linalool with 15.09% geranyl acetate, while a Bangladeshi seed oil was reported at 37.7%. The same page calls it a good substitute for rosewood, which it ties to that linalool content.
Seed size separates the oil-rich crop from the rest. The small-fruited type, with seeds under 3 mm, has a strong flavour and a rich essential oil content. According to the CBI market report, Bulgaria is the largest producer of coriander seed in Europe and grows this variety, as Russia does. Russia is the largest supplier of seed to Europe, with a 22% market share, and Ukrainian seed is recognised for its high oil content.
Delacourte, a perfume house, calls coriander a "cold spice" with a citrusy, lemony, slightly camphorous scent. Its blog adds that the fresh plant smells unpleasant and that drying the seeds removes that facet, and that coriander has been found in the tombs of pharaohs. The leaf oil reads as green, waxy and soapy. The glossary cites 0.1 to 0.5% as the level at which it goes into green-herbal and culinary accords.
Accords it shows up in
How many of the fragrances listing Coriander in our catalogue also carry each accord. We counted this ourselves.
Often paired with
The notes that appear next to Coriander most often in our catalogue.
Well-known fragrances with Coriander
Fragrances that list it in their notes, most-rated first.
Houses that use it most
Ranked by how many of their well-known fragrances list Coriander.