Cilantro

See also : Coriander
Cilantro, an herb also commonly known as cilantro or Chinese parsley, is popular in Mexican and Asian cuisines. The health facts of this herb point to a fairly low nutritional value in terms of macronutrients, but it does contain vitamins and minerals. Some people find this herb imparts a soapy taste due to a genetic anomaly.

The benefits of Cilantro are

• Calories and Fat : Cilantro leaves are quite low in calories and fat. Each 1/4-cup serving of this herb contains just 1 calorie and 0.02 g of fat, making it a good option to add flavor to recipes in reduced-fat and reduced-calorie dishes. In a 2,000-calorie maintenance diet, the amount of calories account for 0.5 percent of the quantity of calories you should consume each day.
• Carbohydrates and Protein : With such a small amount of calories, it stands to reason that cilantro does not contain many carbs or protein. One serving of this herb provides 0.15 g of carbs and 0.09 g of protein. It is likely that you will add cilantro to a recipe, rather than eat it by itself.
• Vitamin K : One serving of cilantro provides 16 percent of the daily recommended intake of vitamin K. Your body relies on vitamin K in your diet to help it coagulate blood -- this prevents a cut or scratch from becoming a major medical event. If you take blood thinners, you might need extra vitamin K. Consult your physician before adding cilantro to your diet for the purpose of beating a vitamin K deficiency.
• Vitamin A : Cilantro serves as a source of vitamin A, a vitamin important for the health of your eyes. One serving of this herb contains 5 percent of the quantity of vitamin A you require daily. Eating cilantro can bolster your night vision and reduce your risk of eye infections thanks to vitamin A's corneal protections.
• Other Vitamins and Minerals : A serving of cilantro has 2 percent of the vitamin C you should consume each day, as well as 1 percent of the daily recommended intake of vitamin E, folate, potassium and manganese. While these amounts are quite small, the vitamins and minerals in this quantity of cilantro make this herb good for your immune system, heart function and bone health.
• Cognitive Function Benefits : Consuming cilantro might help improve your memory. Research published in the January 2011 issue of the "Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture" says mouse studies suggest cognitive benefits from ingesting cilantro; researchers theorize it might be useful for Alzheimer's patients. Human studies are needed to help support this hypothesis.
• detox : Raw, organic cilantro is cheap and easy to add into juice or make into pesto to give you an extra mercury elimination boost. When mercury was found in patients' urine in an Indonesian clinic, soup with cilantro was discovered to help eliminate theheavy metal.If you're really overwhelmed by heavy metal toxins, you may need to be cautious about toxins relocating elsewhere in the body. In that case, elimination needs to be encouraged by heavy sauna sweating or coffee enemas. Since toxins tend to get stored in fats, it's a good idea to work on losing body fat as well. But normally, a heavy intake of chlorella can help break up the toxins locked intofats. It's hard to go wrong with chlorella and cilantroas mercury detox superfoods.
• Cilantro as a natural anti-inflammatory medicine : As far as inflammation is concerned, researchers from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi, India, found that rats given a powdered extract of coriander seeds to treat rheumatoid arthritis experienced far less swelling and inflammation compared to rats given a steroid treatment for the condition.
• Antibiotic : Cilantro can crush salmonella: In a recent study led by Isao Kubo, Ph.D at the University of Berkeley, laboratory tests have shown that this component of cilantro is two times as potent as the commonly-used allopathic antibiotic medicine gentamycin. This makes it a potent weapon against the dangerous salmonella bacteria.