An annual bare plant with a thin taproot, a finely furrowed straight stem within 70 cm in height; the lower leaves are three-parted, with wedge-shaped toothed leaflets, the middle leaves are pinnately dissected. Small pink flowers are collected in complex umbrellas with 3-5 rays, marginal flowers in umbrellas are slightly irregular; umbrellas almost without a wrapper, umbrellas with 3 subulate leaves-wrappers; the fruit is spherical, brownish-yellow, within 2.5 mm in diameter. Blooms in June-July.
Sometimes cultivated, bred in gardens as a spicy plant. It also occurs as a weed near dwellings.
Seeds (fruits) are used for medicinal purposes. The color of the fruit is gray or grayish brown. The taste is spicy, the smell is peculiar, pleasant.
The fruits contain up to 1.2% essential oil, which includes linodal and terpene.
The essential oil of coriander seed has choleretic, analgesic, antiseptic, anti-hemorrhoid, expectorant and appetite-increasing properties. It enhances the granulation and secretion of the glands of the digestive tract.
Preparations in the form of powder, infusion and tincture of coriander are used as a digestive aid, a choleretic agent for diseases of the liver and gallbladder, for flatulence, as an expectorant for lung diseases, as an anti-hemorrhoid agent and externally for the treatment of wounds. The essential oil obtained by steam distillation of the fruit is used as a substitute for lavender oil in some pharmaceutical products. In folk medicine, coriander fruits are used for diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, as a stimulant and regulator of its activity. In the past, infusions and tinctures of the fruit were used to treat chronic indigestion, hemorrhoids, colds, wounds, and sugared fruits were used to eliminate bad breath.