Apium graveolens L. (Celery): In Vitro Culture and the Production of Flavors

Abstract

Celery (Apium graveolens L.) is an umbellifer and is therefore a close relative of parsley, parsnip, and carrot. Like many damp-loving umbellifers, wild celery has a wide distribution, extending from Sweden to Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, and in Asia from the Caucasus to Baluchistan and to the mountains of India (Atal and Kapur 1977). The wild plant is bitter and was probably used for medicinal purposes before gaining popularity as a herb and a vegetable (Small 1948). The curative powers attributed to celery are many and varied. Both the roots and seeds were used medicinally, especially in obstructions of the liver and spleen and in the treatment of fevers, jaundice and diaorrhea, pains in the chest, windy cholic and as a diuretic (Phillips 1827). Celery seed (or its oil) is also apparently a cure for rheumatism, gout, bronchitis and asthma (Karim and Bhatty 1976), flatulence and colic (Bjeldanes and Kim 1978) and is ascribed the properties of being abortifacient, antiseptic (Bjeldanes and Kim 1978), deobstruent, anti-inflammatory, a cardiac tonic, a sedative (Guenther 1950) and finally and in contradiction to the last, a stimulant (Karim and Bhatty 1976). Despite this wealth of medicinal qualities ascribed to celery and its seed, no pharmaceutical value is at present attributed to it, being regarded as one of many folk remedies (Crosby and Anderson 1963). The exceptions to this view are publications by Kohli et al. (1967) and Bjeldanes and Kim (1978) on the sedative activity of celery seed constituents.