Culantro vs. Cilantro: Differences and Swaps

Culantro and cilantro are two different plants with similar names and a shared smell. Culantro is a tropical American plant with long, spiny-edged leaves; cilantro is the leaf of the plant that also gives you the spice coriander. PROSEA says culantro’s leaves smell like coriander, and that it reached Southeast Asia as a substitute for it.¹ They share their leading aroma compound, which is why one can stand in for the other, but they differ in strength, toughness and how each handles heat. We found no measurement behind the “ten times stronger” line you’ll see repeated.

Side by side

	Culantro	Cilantro
Species	Eryngium foetidum	Coriandrum sativum
Family	Apiaceae (Umbelliferae)	Apiaceae
Native range	Mexico to tropical America (Kew)	Eastern Mediterranean to western Pakistan
Plant	Biennial of the wet tropics	Feathery annual
Leaves	Long, with spiny-toothed margins; tough, best finely chopped	Feathery
Leading aroma compound	(E)-2-dodecenal, 59.7% of leaf oil in one Malaysian sample (PROSEA)¹	(E)-2-dodecenal, 15.6% of leaf oil; aldehydes over 80% of the volatiles (PROSEA)²
Strength	Smells similar to cilantro but stronger in flavor (UF)³	Milder (no measurement found)
Keeping	Packaged, up to 2 weeks at 10 °C (PROSEA);¹ several days refrigerated, or ground and frozen (Puerto Rico bulletin)⁴	Cut leaves about a week refrigerated (Wisconsin)⁵
Typical uses	Puerto Rican sofrito; soups, curries, stews, rice and fish; the Vietnamese pho plate	Latin American, Indian and Chinese dishes; Mexican salsas and meat dishes
Where to buy	Usually Vietnamese, Latin and Caribbean markets	Most supermarkets (common knowledge)

The two (E)-2-dodecenal figures come from separate analyses summarized by PROSEA. They’re shares of each plant’s oil, not amounts per leaf. So they show the compound leads in both, but they don’t measure how much stronger culantro is.

The differences that change a dish

Strength

The University of Florida says culantro smells similar to cilantro but tastes stronger,³ and Andrea Nguyen calls it a hot-weather herb with a strong, slightly sweet cilantro flavor.⁶ You’ll see “ten times stronger” repeated widely. We found no measurement behind it.

Toughness and heat

Culantro’s leaves are tough, so chop them fine. Cilantro is tender: LSU AgCenter lists it among the delicate herbs best added in the last minute or two, because long heat costs flavor and aroma.⁷ That’s the practical split. Culantro gets cooked into Puerto Rican sofrito, where UF calls it a key ingredient,³ and it also goes into soups, curries, stews, rice and fish dishes. Cilantro usually goes in at the end or gets served raw. We didn’t find anyone who’s tested how well culantro’s flavor survives long cooking next to cilantro’s, so its reputation for holding up comes from how cooks use it.

The soapy question

Some people find cilantro soapy. In a study of more than 14,000 people, that trait was linked to a genetic variant near olfactory receptor genes, and the authors identify cilantro’s key aroma components as aldehydes.⁸ People describe cilantro as anything from citrusy with a biting tang to soapy. Culantro’s oil is led by the same aldehyde,¹² so if you dislike cilantro, you may well dislike culantro too. No study has tested that directly.

Growing and buying

Cilantro tends to bolt, or go to seed, in hot weather. Culantro is a wet-tropics plant, and UF notes that shade helps keep it from bolting.³ In the US, culantro is usually sold at Vietnamese, Latin and Caribbean markets. PROSEA notes that Trinidad exports it to North America and Europe.¹

Storage

The Puerto Rico bulletin says culantro leaves keep several days in the fridge, and for longer storage they should be ground and frozen.⁴ PROSEA gives up to 2 weeks for packaged leaves at 10 °C.¹ Wisconsin gives cut cilantro about a week in the fridge.⁵ Those come from different conditions, so they don’t tell you which herb lasts longer. For cilantro, see how to store cilantro and can you freeze cilantro?

Safety

The FDA has an import alert on fresh cilantro from the Mexican state of Puebla, after recurring cyclosporiasis outbreaks in 2012 to 2015.⁹ We found no similar regulator action on culantro.

Can one stand in for the other?

Yes, and more closely than most herb swaps, because they share their main aroma compound. Ratio (Method): these starting points come from our substitute pages.

Swap	Starting amount	Notes
Culantro in place of cilantro (raw)	About 1/2 the amount, finely chopped, then taste	Tough leaves; chop fine.³ See cilantro substitutes.
Cilantro in place of culantro (sofrito, stews)	About 2 times the amount, leaves and tender stems	Add a little extra fresh cilantro at the end, since it fades with long cooking.⁷ See culantro substitutes.
Cilantro in place of culantro (pho plate)	About twice as many sprigs as culantro leaves	Nguyen’s plate uses 3 or 4 culantro leaves.⁶

What isn’t known

No measurement compares the strength of culantro and cilantro. The “ten times” figure can’t be traced.
No study tests whether people who find cilantro soapy react the same way to culantro.
We didn’t find anyone who’s run a head-to-head storage test. The keeping figures come from different sources and conditions.
No source tests how culantro’s flavor holds up in long cooking compared with cilantro’s.

Culantro and cilantro, the full profiles
Culantro substitutes and cilantro substitutes
Coriander vs. cilantro, cilantro vs. parsley, basil vs. cilantro, chervil vs. cilantro, cilantro vs. oregano
Cooking with cilantro, too much cilantro, dried cilantro vs. fresh

M.H. van den Bergh, Eryngium foetidum, Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶
Coriandrum sativum, Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩ ↩²
“Culantro”, Gardening Solutions, University of Florida IFAS Extension. gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
Luis Reinaldo Santiago Santos, La producción de recao o culantro (Eryngium foetidum L.) en Puerto Rico, Estación Experimental Agrícola, Universidad de Puerto Rico, 2001. uprm.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩²
Susan Mahr, “Cilantro”, Wisconsin Master Gardener Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension, 2017. mastergardener.extension.wisc.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩²
Andrea Nguyen, “Pho Garnish Plate”, from The Pho Cookbook, via The Splendid Table. splendidtable.org · Publication ↩ ↩²
“Flavorful Herbs”, LSU AgCenter. lsuagcenter.com · Reference work ↩ ↩²
Eriksson et al., “A genetic variant near olfactory receptor genes influences cilantro preference”, Flavour, 2012. link.springer.com · Peer-reviewed ↩
Import Alert 24-23, U.S. Food and Drug Administration. accessdata.fda.gov · Regulator ↩

Also drawn on

Eryngium foetidum L., Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. powo.science.kew.org
Coriandrum sativum L., Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. powo.science.kew.org
Coriander, Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com

Culantro vs. Cilantro: Two Plants, One Signature Aroma