As a youngster at boarding school I was tested positive for Bilharzia. Treatment would have commenced after the school term holidays. During the holidays my parents gave me a dose of corriander tea taken every morning for I seem to remember three weeks.On returning to school I was retested and found to be clear.Either a faulty first test or coriander has medicinal propertias.

I have noticed something similar. For me and a few others Ginko seeds smell like Parmesan to everyone else it smells like old socks.

how about predispostion to disliking the strong flavours. personally i love them all. its all about what you were grown up to like or dislike, cultrual heritage in teh foods and drinks. jsut anotehr possiblity

Most interesting question and comments. So much of others have contributed carries gravitas and resonates with me. Here#39;s my take on this. I can keep it simple but brevity constitutes more of a challenge. Sorry!Almost certainly at the heart of this is an aversion or sensitivity to to certain compounds, groups of compounds, and/or bitter flavours in general.I think the question defies a singular explanation and is worthy of a more pluralistic approach. There is something to be learned from this question as an example; that is that the outward presentation of nature can often be quite simple yet becomes quite complicated and/or plural when we look to the nuts and bolts of how and why.To begin with, evolution may have installed in infants an aversion to bitter flavours and the genetic explanation may have some pertinence here. IMHO the genetic explanation, though pertinent, may not necessarily be the most influential factorial. I think instead that conditioning may be.When as a new parent, I picked up upon an explanation that babies are born with underdeveloped sense of taste. They are more likely to find textures more intriguing and/or disagreeable. I went out of my way to apply this to my perceived advantage and we introduced diversity of flavours at a very early age, thus reducing the likelihood of being rejected by an unsuspecting toddler with an under-developed sense of taste. The child is now 13yo and strikingly receptive to many diverse foods and spices, a very apparent contrast if his peers share our dinner table. I feel his palate was successfully conditioned before he could object. There is one notable exception; he strongly dislikes mushrooms. Might evolution have some bearing upon aversion to mushrooms as without specific knowledge wild fungi have the potential to be devastatingly toxic?But I think conditioning of the palate may have some bearing even in adulthood. I think the young have an installed preference for sweetness. In an evolutionary context this may make sense and help satisfy calorific requirements for a growing body. In the modern world, availability of refined natural sweeteners (and un-natural ones) perpetuates the preference for sweetness into young adulthood and beyond. In a natural setting, restricted availability of sweet flavoured food may contribute to a #39;forced#39; re-education of the palate and reduction in preference for sweet flavour then, in so doing, may progressively contribute to improved tolerance of bitter flavours. In the modern world the availability of sweet flavour is pretty much unlimited. But even those who insist upon three spoons of sugar in their tea could could down progressively if they made the effort. Down the road three spoons will taste unpalatably sweet; the palate will have been re-educated in time. Given the otherwise prevailing availability of natural or artificial sweeteners the preference is not challenged.This makes sense to me and hopefully it will to others as much of the explanation is in agreement with the elemental contributions of others. As for nuts, without being able to name them, I think bitter compounds are present so my explanation, if valid, would indeed be applicable. Bitter tannins are associated with tree nuts, are they?Perhaps consumption of bland, convenient, industrially prepared foods tending to nutritional imbalance can go some way to explain health and lifestyle concerns of our time. Perhaps it could be substantially different with a little education.

Aniseed, caraway, cumin, fennel and coriander are all spices from fruits*. Spice allergy in celery-sensitive patients has been published** (Allergy. 1991 Aug;46(6):475-8.). You might have a food allergy to one component, but with few symptoms. Have a look at http://foodallergens.ifr.ac.uk/. Or maybe you just don’t like certain fruits. Spices from leaves include tarragon, and spices from flowers or flower buds include capers; ie, I don’t know of a very clear connection here to the above five spices.* Spices from fruits include allspice, anise/aniseed, black pepper, bell peppers, capsicum, caraway, celery powder, chillies, coriander, cumin, dill, fennel, juniper, paprikas, star anise and vanilla.** Abstract: Scratch tests (SCT) with powdered commercial spices were performed in 70 patients with positive skin tests to birch and/or mugwort pollens and celery. Positive SCT to aniseed, fennel, coriander and cumin - all from the same botanical family (Apiaceae) as celery - were observed in more than 24 patients. Spices from unrelated families (red pepper, white pepper, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon) elicited positive immediate skin test reactions only in three of 11 patients. Specific serum IgE to spices (determined in 41 patients with positive RAST to celery) up to class 3 were seen especially in patients with celerymugwort or celery-birch-mugwort association, and concerned various botanical families. Celery-birch association pattern was linked to positive reactions (RAST classes 1–2) to spices from the Apiaceae family only.Dara Koper, Salzburg, dara.koper@gmail.com