For some people, today is a festival worth celebrating – the world hates coriander day ( Feb 24 ).

Hot pot, fragrant pot, grilled fish, beef noodles… In the face of all kinds of delicious food, some people always feel that it is not delicious without coriander, while another group of people have only one sentence in their minds: no coriander! Don’t use coriander!

The same is coriander, why human tastes are not the same, love people, love thoroughly; People who are bored are bored to the end.

Coriander is the root of coriander.

It originated in the Mediterranean, and the Egyptians began to use this spice plant as early as 5000 BC. In Exodus 16:31 of the Bible, there is a description of coriander seed as a metaphor. It can be seen that coriander seed was a very common spice at that time.

Everyone smells different coriander

Caraway, like parsley, carrot and cumin, belongs to the umbrella family, and most of them contain volatile oil, so most of these vegetables have a “special” smell.

The “fragrance” of coriander is composed of mannitol, n-decanol, nonanol, linalool and other volatile oil substances.

Researchers from a famous genetic testing company in the United States have found that the preference for coriander may be related to genes in the body.

Researchers studied and compared the DNA of nearly 50000 people and found that those who ate coriander and felt soap smell all carried a special gene named “OR6A2”. These genes participate in the olfactory and taste functions of the human body, and are particularly sensitive to aldehyde molecules. This chemical has the smell of coriander, which is called soap smell.

They also found that about half of Europeans have two “OR6A2” genes in their chromosomes, but only 15% said that coriander has a soap smell, and 11% of people who do not carry the “OR6A2” gene also said that coriander has a soap smell.

Researchers said that genetic variation accounted for a certain proportion of the taste perception of coriander. Not only that, another gene related to smell and two genes related to bitter taste also affected the taste perception of coriander.

There is also the subtle influence of acquired habits

According to a paper published in the British journal “Flavour”, about 3% – 21% do not like coriander according to regional and ethnic differences.

Among them, East Asians accounted for 21%, far higher than the Europeans who accounted for 17% and Africans who accounted for 14%.

Experts speculate that it may be because East Asian countries often add coriander to their cuisine, and people can eat it frequently, so the proportion of people who hate it is also high.

Other nutritionists believe that due to the living environment, some people do not like to eat coriander since childhood. Under the family’s eating habits, inexplicable reasons for not eating coriander will naturally alienate this vegetable.

On the contrary, even if there is a group that does not like to eat coriander gene, but the family members like to eat coriander, then in the later stage, because of environmental factors, they may become in love with coriander.