Saw Leaf Herb: Flavor, Uses and Names

Saw leaf herb smells like cilantro, only stronger, and the two share a dominant aroma compound even though they’re different plants. It’s Eryngium foetidum, a tropical American plant in the carrot family with long, serrated leaves, and it goes by a lot of names: culantro and recao in the Caribbean, ngò gai in Vietnam, pak chi farang in Thailand. Here we cover it mostly through its Southeast Asian use. Our culantro page goes deeper on its Caribbean use and storage.

At a glance


Botanical name	Eryngium foetidum L.
Plant family	Apiaceae (carrot and parsley family)
Part used	Leaves, fresh
Native range	Mexico to tropical America (Kew); the Caribbean islands (Katzer)¹²
Names	Saw leaf herb, sawtooth coriander, long coriander, culantro, recao, shado beni (Trinidad), ngò gai (Vietnam), pak chi farang (Thailand)
Key aroma compound	(E)-2-dodecenal, about 60% of the leaf oil³²
Production figures	No statistics; mostly gathered wild or grown in gardens
Forms sold	Fresh leaves at Vietnamese, Latin and Caribbean markets

Measured values

5 figures, sourced

Measure	Value	Scope	Source
(E)-2-Dodecenal	about 60 % of leaf oil	Leaf oil, per Katzer	gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com
(E)-2-Dodecenal	59.7 % of leaf oil	A Malaysian sample, PROSEA	uses.plantnet-project.org
Calcium Nutrient	99 mg per 100 g edible portion	Leaves, PROSEA	uses.plantnet-project.org
Iron Nutrient	13 mg per 100 g edible portion	Leaves, PROSEA	uses.plantnet-project.org
Storage life, packaged leaves	up to 2 weeks at 10 °C; 4 days at 28 °C days or weeks at stated temperature	Packaged leaves, PROSEA	uses.plantnet-project.org

Each figure is quoted as its source states it, with the samples or standard it applies to. Where sources differ, both are shown; nothing is averaged. All measured values

The name

“Saw leaf herb” and “sawtooth coriander” come from the serrated leaves, which look a bit like a saw blade. The leaf blade is 5 to 32 cm long with a spiny serrated edge. Other English names include Puerto Rican coriander, Mexican coriander, spiny coriander, black Benny and fitweed. In Vietnamese it’s ngò gai, among other names, and in Thai pak chi farang.

Saw leaf and cilantro are different plants. Cilantro is the leaf of coriander, Coriandrum sativum; see cilantro and culantro vs. cilantro.

Where it comes from

Source	Native range
Kew Plants of the World Online	Mexico to tropical America; its native list also includes Java and Sumatra¹
PROSEA	Origin unknown; Central and South America, from southern Mexico to Brazil and from Cuba to Trinidad³
Katzer	The Caribbean islands²

PROSEA says the Chinese brought it to Southeast Asia as a stand-in for coriander.³ It’s been introduced across large parts of Southeast Asia, including Indochina, Malaysia and Indonesia, and its introduced range also takes in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Florida and Georgia, among other places.

Flavor and aroma

The smell is strong and very close to fresh coriander leaves, with a similar but even stronger taste. You’ll often read that saw leaf is “ten times” stronger than cilantro, but we couldn’t find any measurement behind that. The leaves are tougher than cilantro, so chop them finely.

The compounds

The leaf oil is rich in aliphatic aldehydes, and Katzer names (E)-2-dodecenal (about 60%) as the impact compound.² PROSEA reports 59.7% in a Malaysian sample.³ That same aldehyde is the largest single component of cilantro leaf oil in PROSEA’s coriander entry (15.6%), among compounds PROSEA describes as smelling bug-like.⁴ The two figures come from different samples and don’t measure relative strength. They do show that the two herbs share a dominant aroma compound.

How saw leaf is used

Vietnam. It often fully replaces coriander leaves as a garnish for soups and stir-fries. Andrea Nguyen’s pho garnish plate includes 3 or 4 ngò gai leaves with mint, Thai basil and rice paddy herb.⁵
Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Used with or in place of coriander, scattered over soups, noodle dishes and curries.
Southeast Asia generally. It goes into soups, curries, stews, rice and fish dishes, and tender young leaves are also eaten raw or cooked as a vegetable.
The Caribbean. It’s most closely tied to Puerto Rican cooking, where it’s a key ingredient in sofrito. See culantro and Caribbean spices.

You can add it earlier in cooking than you would cilantro. It also works in salsas and guacamole, in small amounts.

Buying and storage

You’ll usually find it at Vietnamese, Latin and Caribbean markets. Look for firm, deep-green leaves with no yellowing. PROSEA reports that packaged leaves keep up to 2 weeks at 10 °C but only 4 days at 28 °C.³ There’s more storage detail on the culantro page.

Nutrition

PROSEA gives the leaves 99 mg calcium and 13 mg iron per 100 g edible portion, and points to the iron as especially high.³ It gives no vitamin values, and we found no USDA entry, so we couldn’t check claims that saw leaf is a significant source of vitamins A, B2 or C.

Safety and health claims

PROSEA records traditional use of the leaves in Central and South America as a remedy for colds and fever.³ That’s tradition, not a tested finding. We couldn’t trace claims that saw leaf lowers blood sugar through its riboflavin, fights inflammation or arthritis, has proven antioxidant benefits, or treats seizures to any source we opened. We don’t claim it treats or prevents anything. We also found no regulator assessment or recall involving the plant.

Substitutes and comparisons

Cilantro, used generously, is the usual stand-in. Related pages:

Eryngium foetidum L., Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. powo.science.kew.org · Reference work ↩ ↩²
“Eryngium foetidum (long coriander)”, Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages. gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
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 ↩⁷
Coriandrum sativum, Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩
Andrea Nguyen, “Pho Garnish Plate”, from The Pho Cookbook, via The Splendid Table. splendidtable.org · Publication ↩

Also drawn on

Culantro, Gardening Solutions, University of Florida IFAS Extension. gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu
La producción de recao o culantro (Eryngium foetidum L.) en Puerto Rico (Luis Reinaldo Santiago Santos, Publicación 162, December 2001), Estación Experimental Agrícola, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto Universitario de Mayagüez. uprm.edu

Saw Leaf Herb (Ngò Gai): The Serrated, Cilantro-Scented Leaf of Vietnamese and Caribbean Cooking