"The Cilantro Gene"
One sign of changing U.S. demographics is that
salsa has replaced ketchup as America’s #1 table condiment,
one of the popular ingredients of which is cilantro,
one of the most polarizing and divisive food ingredients known.
Some people love it; some people hate it.
What’s interesting is that the lovers and the haters
appear to experience the taste differently.
Individuals who like cilantro may describe it as fresh, fragrant, or citrusy,
whereas those who dislike cilantro report that it tastes like soap, mold, dirt, or bugs.
I don’t know how people know what bugs taste like,
but rarely are polarizing opinions about flavors so extreme.
Maybe it’s genetic.
Different ethnic groups do seem to have different rates of cilantro dislike,
with Ashkenazi Jews scoring highest on the cilantro hate-o-meter.
Another clue came from twin studies, that show that
identical twins tend to share cilantro preferences,
whereas regular fraternal twins do not have such a strong correlation.
Our genetic code is so big, though, containing about three billion letters,
that to find some cilantro gene you'd have to analyze the DNA in cilantro tastes of like 10,000 people,
and obviously genetic researchers have better things to do...or maybe not.
Here we present the results of a genome-wide association study
among 14,000 participants who reported whether cilantro tasted soapy,
with replication in a distinct set of 11,000 people
who declared whether they liked cilantro or not.
And lo and behold, they found a spot on chromosome 11 that seemed to match.
What’s there?
A gene called OR6A2, that enables us to smell certain chemicals like E-(2)-Decenal,
a primary constituent of cilantro and also the defensive secretions of stink bugs.
So maybe cilantro DOES taste like bugs!
But cilantro lovers may be genetic mutants
that have an inability to smell the unpleasant compound.
But that may actually be an advantage, though, since cilantro is healthy stuff.
In fact, that’s the justification to do these kinds of studies
to see why some people don’t like the taste of healthy foods.
Are the cilantro haters really missing out on much, though?
Mother nature has been described as
the oldest and most comprehensive pharmacy of all time,
and cilantro, called coriander around most of the world,
is one of nature’s oldest herbal prescriptions,
credited with anti-microbial, anti-oxidant, anti-diabetic, anti-anxiety, anti-epilepsy
etc, etc properties.
But these are all from preclinical studies,
meaning on cells in a test tube or lab rats,
studies like the anti-despair activity of cilantro in mice,
testing animals placed in a despair apparatus.
Finally, though, a human study, on the anti-arthritis potential of cilantro.
There was a study performed in Germany of a lotion made out of cilantro seeds,
showing it could decrease the redness of a sunburn,
showing it had some anti-inflammatory effects,
though not as much as an over-the-counter steroid, hydrocortisone,
or prescription strength steroid cream.
Well, if the cilantro plant is anti-inflammatory,
let’s give it to some people with osteoarthritis and see if it helps.
They gave about 20 sprigs of cilantro daily for two months,
and reported a significant drop in ESR in the cilantro group,
a nonspecific indicator of inflammation.
How did the patients do clinically, though?
They didn’t say, but did report a rather remarkable decrease in uric acid levels —
a 50% drop, suggesting that huge amounts of cilantro may be useful for those suffering
from a different arthritis called gout.