phak phai (Vietnamese coriander)
organism / organism-persicaria-odorata
ベトナムコリアンダー / Persicaria odorata (Lour.) Soják
Phak phai (Vietnamese coriander) is an aromatic herb in the knotweed family whose aboveground parts (ส่วนเหนือดิน) are listed in the Thai Herbal Pharmacopoeia. Used as a condiment in dishes such as larb in northern Thailand and Isan.
On this page (8 sections)
Reading the bitterness
ผักไผ่ (phak phai; Persicaria odorata (Lour.) Soják) is formally listed as a crude-drug monograph for its aboveground parts (ส่วนเหนือดิน) in the 2025 supplement to the 2021 Thai Herbal Pharmacopoeia, compiled by the Department of Medical Sciences under Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health. The monograph follows the pharmacopoeia’s standard format of description, identification, and specifications, with Herbarium Specimen Number DMSC 5343, Crude Drug Number DMSc 1221, the synonym Asian Mint, and the family Polygonaceae (knotweed family).
Phak phai is used as a condiment in northern Thai and Isan dishes such as larb. Yet the official Thai Herbal Pharmacopoeia monograph describes it as 「Odour, aromatic, characteristic; taste, slightly tingling.(香りは芳香性で特徴的、味はわずかにピリピリする)」 (in translation: "Its odour is aromatic and characteristic; its taste is slightly tingling"). The word “bitter” does not appear anywhere in the 11-page monograph, including its description, identification, and purity specifications. Its culinary role may invite an assumption of bitterness, but on this official source the principal taste description is tingling, not bitterness. This is a qualitative description by the pharmacopoeia compilers, not a formal sensory-panel result with participant counts or intensity scales.
Sources for this overview
ผักไผ่, ส่วนเหนือดิน (PHAK PHAI, SUAN NUEA DIN)
Checked for this overview: Used the listing in the pharmacopoeia monograph as support for this paragraph. / Used the absence of the word “bitter” as support for this paragraph.
Other names: ผักไผ่ (th), phak phai (th-Latn), Persicaria odorata (Lour.) Soják (la)
Follow the connections
phak phai (Vietnamese coriander) →— sensory attribute→ tingling
Structured claims — open a section to read each claim's confidence, evidence and limits
Composition and content (1)
Scope: Thai Herbal Pharmacopoeia, Department of Medical Sciences, Ministry of Public Health, Thailand.
Note: The listing itself was confirmed; the detailed text on description, medicinal effects, and safety was not examined this time (the PDF of more than 17 megabytes could not be obtained).
Show data
organism-persicaria-odorata —is_documented_in→ "Formally listed as a crude-drug monograph for the aboveground parts (ส่วนเหนือดิน) in Thai Herbal Pharmacopoeia 2021 Supplement 2025."Sensory (1)
Scope: Description of the dried aboveground crude drug in the official Thai Herbal Pharmacopoeia monograph.
Note: This bitterness database lists organism-persicaria-odorata as an herb 「北タイ・イサーンのラープ等薬味として使われる」 (in translation: "used as a condiment in northern Thai and Isan larb and similar dishes"), but the verbatim taste description in the official monograph of Thailand’s Department of Medical Sciences is "taste, slightly tingling"; the monograph makes no mention of bitterness. Caution is needed before attributing its role in larb to bitterness: on this monograph, tingling (sensation-tingling), rather than bitterness, is central. The claim status is preliminary because the pharmacopoeia gives a qualitative description, not a formal sensory test with a panel size and method.
Show data
organism-persicaria-odorata —has_sensory_attribute→ sensation-tingling