In this article we will discuss about:- 1. Description of Cardamom 2. Cardamom – Cultivation, Production, and Preparation 3. General Characters, Varieties, Commerce and Composition 4. Medicinal Properties and Uses 5. Other Kinds.
Description of Cardamom:
A large perennial herb, with a thick fleshy or woody Lisome giving off fibrous roots below and ringed with the scars of the attachment of previous leaves, branched and sending up flowering stems 6—12 feet in height, which are erect, smooth, gradually tapering, shining and covered with the leaf-sheaths. Leaves large, alternate and distichously arranged, sheathing, sheaths very long, half surrounding the stem and overlapped by those below, terminating above in a short rounded Iigule, blade spreading 1—2½ feet long, convolute in vernation, lanceolate or narrowly lanceolate, very acute at the apex, tapering at the base into a very short footstalk, quite entire, firm, smooth and dark green above, pale glaucous-green and finely silky beneath, midrib strong, very prominent beneath, lateral veins very numerous, parallel, coming off at an acute angle.
Flowering-stems given off from the upper part of the rhizome- branches and spreading horizontally near the ground, from a few inches to 2 feet long, jointed, flexuous, with numerous large distichous blunt oblong bracts at the nodes, persistent, dry, and withered in fruit.
Flowers rather small, stalked, laxly arranged about 4 together in small racemes coming from the axils of the large bracts; a similar bract of smaller size stands opposite the base of each pedicel. Calyx superior, tubular, narrowly oblong, very delicate and transparent, cut into 3 short triangular teeth at the apex.
Corolla with a slender delicate tube extending considerably beyond the calyx, divided above into 3 nearly equal, oblong, obtuse, concave membranous pale green segments, the anterior one rather the larger.
Androecium of 6 portions in 2 rows; the outer row consisting of 3 unequal staminodes inserted at the mouth of the corolla tube, two being small, horizontal, horn-like, somewhat twisted opposite bodies, and the third large, petaloid (the labellum), rhomboidal-spathulate from a narrow base, obscurely 3-lobed and with the margin undulated, white, with pink or purple veins; the inner row also of 3 unequal parts, two being small, barren, acicular staminodes inserted on the top of the ovary (epigynous), and the third a fertile stamen inserted at the mouth of the corolla between the hom-like staminodes of the outer row; filament rather short, connective thick and fleshy, anther 2-celled, adnate, introrse, the cells contiguous but separated by the style which passes up between them.
Ovary inferior, smooth, ovoid, 3-celled, style very slender and thread-like, thickened above, stigma capitate, small, hairy, occupying the space between, the summits of the two anther-cells. Fruit oblong-ovoid, ½ — ¾ inch long, bluntly triangular, smooth, striate, pale yellowish-grey, pointed, tipped with the withered perianth, pericarp thin, dehiscing loculicidally into 3 valves.
Seeds several in each cell, closely packed, angular, obtusely wedge-shaped, dark brown; slightly rough or wrinkled, with a small hilum, attached by their sharp angle to the axis, embryo straight, axile, small, with the radicle towards the hilum and projecting beyond the farinaceous endosperm, from which it is also separated by an investment of fleshy substance (the vitellus).
Cardamom – Cultivation, Production, and Preparation:
Cardamoms are the produce of Southern India which is commonly called Ilachi, grows wild in the forests; but the fruits are also largely obtained from cultivated plants. The authors of Pharmacographia have described the mode of cultivation as pursued in the forests of Travancore, Coorg, and Wynaad; also on the lower range of the Pulney Hills, near Dindigul, and in Northern Canara and Western Mysore, for particulars of which we must refer our readers to that volume. The gathering of the fruits commences in October, and continues during dry weather for two or three months.
The fruits are dried in different ways, thus, in some cases the whole scape of fruits is gathered at once and dried, although all the fruits are not ripe at the same time; or the fruits as they are collected, are carried to the houses, and partially dried for a few days on mats, they are then stripped from their scapes, and the drying completed by a gentle fire-heat. In Coorg, the fruit is stripped from the scape before drying, and the drying is sometimes effected wholly by sun- heat.”
The seeds are best kept in their pericarps, in which condition they are imported, but when required for medicinal use the seeds should be separated from them, and the pericarps rejected.
General Characters, Varieties, Commerce and Composition of Cardamom:
The fruit of commerce is ovoid or oblong in form, 3-sided, and 3-celled, each cell contains from 5 to 7 seeds, which are arranged in two rows. Its base is rounded, and has frequently the remains of a stalk; and its apex terminates in a short beak-like process.
The pericarp is yellowish-grey or brownish-yellow in colour, longitudinally striated, of a papery, and somewhat coriaceous texture, and without taste or odour. Two varieties of Malabar Cardamoms are distinguished in commerce from characters afforded by their fruits, as shorts and short-longs.
Pereira notices a third variety under the name of long-longs, but this kind is now but very rarely or ever imported. The shorts are plump, heavy, ovoid, or somewhat rounded in form, from about 4/10 to 6/10 of an inch in length, and from 2/10 to 4/10 of an inch in breadth. The short-longs are more tapering at each end, from about 7/10 to nearly an inch long, and about the same breath as the shorts. They are distinguished from the shorts not only by their greater length and more tapering character, but also by being of a paler colour, and more finely ribbed.
Cardamoms are also further known in commerce by the districts from whence derived, as Malabar, Madras, and Aleppy. The Malabar Cardamoms, which are commonly brought to Europe by way of Bombay, are of the highest commercial value, being plump, heavy, and of dark colour. They are found in the two forms of shorts and short-longs. The Madras Cardamoms, which are paler coloured and usually in the form of short-longs, are exported from Madras and Pondicherry; and those known as Aleppy Cardamoms are shipped from Calicut or Aleppy, and are usually shorts.
The value of cardamoms is estimated by their plumpness, heaviness, and by the soundness and ripeness of their seeds. These conditions are generally most evident in the shorts of each commercial variety. One hundred parts of the fruit yield on an average, seventy-four parts of seeds, and twenty-six of pericarp, that is, the seeds constitute about three fourths of their weight.
The seeds, which are alone official, are about 1/5 of an inch long, irregularly angular, transversely wrinkled, dark brownish-red externally, and whitish internally. They have an agreeably warm, aromatic taste and odour.
Cardamoms owe their properties essentially to the presence of a volatile oil of which good shorts yield about 4.6 per cent. This volatile oil has the odour and flavour of the seeds in a concentrated degree. Its sp. gr. is about 0.93; it is colourless when fresh, but by keeping it becomes yellow, thicker, and losses in a great measure, its peculiar taste and smell. It is said to consist of a liquid volatile oil, and crystalline camphor identical with turpentine camphor. It is strongly dextrogyre.
Medicinal Properties and Uses of Cardamom:
The effects of cardamoms are those of a very agreeable aromatic; they are used partly on account of their flavour, and partly for their carminative and stimulant properties. They are however, rarely prescribed alone, but commonly either as adjuvants or collectives of cordial, tonic, and purgative medicines.
In Great Britain and in the United States, cardamoms are but little used, being only employed in medicine, and to a very limited extent as an ingredient in the preparation of the condiment known as curry powder. But in the East Indies, besides their medicinal use, they are largely consumed as a condiment and for chewing with betel. In Russia, Norway, Sweden, and parts of Germany, cardamoms are also much in demand for flavouring cakes and in the preparation of liqueurs, &c.
Other Kinds of Cardamom:
Besides the Malabar or Official Cardamoms, a number of other zingiberaceous fruits have been, or are now, employed in pharmacy, and for other purposes, under the common name of Cardamoms. For a description of these we must, however, refer to special works on Materia Medica, and more particularly to Pereira’s Materia Medica’ and Fluckiger and Hanbury’s ‘Pharmacographia.