Coriander

In the first century C.E., Pliny the Elder listed no less than twenty-one remedies using coriander, from soothing ‘fluxes of the belly’ to easing the sting of the Amphisbaena, a two-headed, chicken-footed mythical serpent. Mythical creatures aside, coriander does have some other practical uses. WHERE IS CORIANDER FROM? Coriander, Coriandrum sativum, was probably indigenous to…

CHILLI

Christopher Columbus set out to India in 1492 to acquire, among other things, a reliable supply of black pepper for his Spanish paymasters. Along with mistaking America for India, Christopher Columbus mistook chilli peppers for black peppers, which are not related, and carried them back to Spain. Biting into one of them may have made the difference…