Chemical Composition—Dill fruit yields from 3 to 4 per cent. of an essential oil, the largest proportion of which was found by Gladstone (1864-1872) to be a hydrocarbon, C₁₀H₁₆, to which he gave the name Anethene. This substance has a lemon-like odour, sp. gr. ·846, and boils at 172° C. It deviates a ray of polarized light strongly to the right. Nietzki (1874) ascertained that there is, moreover, present another hydrocarbon, C₁₀H₁₆, in a very small proportion, which boils at 155-160°. A third constituent of oil of dill is in all probability identical with carvol ([see page 307]); we prepared from the former immediately the crystals (C₁₀H₁₄O)₂SH₂.
Uses—The distilled water of dill is stomachic and carminative, and frequently prescribed as a vehicle for more active medicines. The seeds are much used for culinary and medicinal purposes by the people of India, but are little employed in Continental Europe.
FRUCTUS CORIANDRI.
Semen Coriandri; Coriander Fruits, Coriander Seeds, Corianders; F. Fruits de Coriandre; G. Koriander.
Botanical Origin—Coriandrum sativum L., a small glabrous, annual plant, apparently indigenous to the Mediterranean and Caucasian regions, not known growing wild, but now found as a cornfield weed throughout the temperate parts of the Old World. It is cultivated in many countries, and has thus found its way even to Paraguay. In England the cultivation of coriander has long been carried on, but only to a very limited extent.
History—Coriander appears to occur in the famous Egyptian papyrus Ebers; it is also mentioned, under the name of Kustumburu, in early Sanskrit authors, and is also met with in the Scriptures.[1252]
The plant owes its names Κόριον, Κορίαννον, and Κοριάνδρον, or also in the middle ages, Κλάνδρον, to the offensive odour it exhales when handled, and which reminds one of bugs,—in Greek Κόρις. This character caused it to be regarded in the middle ages as having poisonous properties.[1253] The ripe fruits which are entirely free from the fœtid smell of the growing plant, were used as a spice by the Jews and the Romans, and in medicine from a very early period. Cato, who wrote on agriculture in the 3rd century b.c., notices the cultivation of coriander. Pliny states that the best is that of Egypt. It is of frequent occurrence in the book “De opsoniis et condimentis” of Apicius Cœlius, about the 3rd century of our era. Coriander is also included in the list of Charlemagne, alluded to pages 92, 98, etc.
Coriander was well known in Britain prior to the Norman Conquest, and often employed in ancient Welsh and English medicine and cookery.
Cultivation—Coriander, called by the farmers Col, is cultivated in the eastern counties of England, especially in Essex. It is sometimes sown with caraway, and being an annual is gathered and harvested the first year, the caraway remaining in the ground. The seedling plants are hoed so as to leave those that are to remain in rows 10 to 12 inches apart. The plant is cut with sickles, and when dry the seed is thrashed out on a cloth in the centre of the field. On the best land, 15 cwt. per acre is reckoned an average crop.[1254]
Description—The fruit of coriander consists of a pair of hemispherical mericarps, firmly joined so as to form an almost regular globe, measuring on an average about ⅕ of an inch in diameter, crowned by the stylopodium and calycinal teeth, and sometimes by the slender diverging styles. The pericarp bears on each half, 4 perfectly straight sharpish ridges, regarded as secondary (juga secundaria); two other ridges, often of darker colour, belonging to the mericarps in common, the separation of which takes place in a rather sinuous line. The shallow depression between each pair of these straight ridges is occupied by a zigzag raised line (jugum primarium), of which there are therefore 5 in each mericarp. It will thus be seen that each mericarp has 5 (zigzag) so-called primary ridges, and 4 (keeled and more prominent) secondary, besides the lateral ridges which mark the suture or line of separation. There are no vittæ on the outer surface of the pericarp. Of the 5 teeth of the calyx, 2 often grow into long, pointed, persistent lobes; they proceed from the outer flowers of the umbel.