Elettaria cardamomum (fruit)

Nomenclature

Elettaria cardamomum (L.) Maton var. cardamomum   Zingiberaceae  
Syn. Amomum cardamomum L.; Elettaria cardamomum L. var. miniscula Burkill; Elettaria cardamomum L. var. minus Watt  
Standardized common name (English): cardamom  
Ayurvedic name(s): ela

Botanical Voucher Specimen

Source: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Organoleptic Characteristics

Cardamom (fruit) (Elettaria cardamomum) Scent Aromatic when crushed. Flavor Aromatic, pungent. Source: Steven Yeager, Mountain Rose Herbs Cardamom (fruit) (Elettaria cardamomum W. et. M., Scitaminaceae) Color Light brown. Scent Aromatic, spicy, somewhat camphoraceous. Flavor Pungent, cooling sensation. Source: Schneider, A. (1921) The Microanalysis of Powdered Vegetable Drugs, 2nd ed. Elettaria cardamomum ... odor aromatic; taste aromatic, pungent. [...] Aromatic odor; taste agreeably warm and aromatic. Source: United States Dispensatory (1918)

Macroscopic Characteristics

Elettaria cardamomum The cardamom plant has a tuberous horizontal rhizome, sending up from eight to twenty erect, simple, smooth, green and shining, perennial stems, which rise from six to twelve feet in height, and bear alternate elliptical-lanceolate sheathing leaves. The flower-stalk proceeds from the base of the stem, and lies upon the ground, with the flowers arranged in a panicle. The fruit is a three-celled capsule, containing many seeds; during drying it is said to lose three-fourths of its weight. "Mostly agglutinated in groups of from 2 to 7, the individual seeds, oblong-ovoid in outline, 3- or irregularly 4-sided, convex on the dorsal surface, strongly longitudinally grooved on one side, from 3 to 4 mm. in length; externally reddish-gray-brown, coarsely tuberculated, and with more or less adhering portions of the membranous aril; in section showing a thin reddish-brown seed-coat, a large white perisperm and a central, greenish endosperm enclosing a small straight embryo. [...] "Fruits from one to two centimetres long, ovoid or oblong, bluntly triangular in section, shortly beaked at the apex, pale buff in color, plump and nearly smooth or with slight longitudinal striations. Seeds dark reddish-brown, about three millimetres in length and the same in breadth and thickness, irregularly angular, transversely wrinkled, and enclosed in a thin, colorless, membranous aril." Source: United States Dispensatory (1918) Cardamom Whole Fruit Source: Steven Yeager, Mountain Rose Herbs

Microscopic Characteristics

[Elettaria cardamomum] powder is greenish-brown; consisting chiefly of coarse angular fragments of cells of the reserve layers and seed-coat; cells of endosperm and perisperm filled with compound starch grains, the individual grains from 0.001 to 0.004 mm. in diameter; fragments of seed with dark brown stone cells, which are polygonal in surface view and about 0.02 mm. in diameter; in mounts made with hydrated chloral T.S. single prisms or crystals in rosette aggregates may separate in the cells of the endosperm and perisperm; fragments of spiral tracheae with accompanying slightly lignified bast-fibers relatively few. [...] The powdered seeds exhibit abundant, minute, angular starch grains, often compacted into masses; but no spiral vessels, sclerenchymatous fibres, or strongly elongated selerenehymatous cells (absence of pericarps). Source: United States Dispensatory (1918) Cardamom (fruit) (Elettaria cardamomum W. et. M., Scitaminaceae)Epidermal cells of pericarp of polygonal cells; parenchyma cells of pericarp thin walled containing prismatic crystals of calcium oxalate; endosperm cells containing oil, minute starch granules and proteid granules. Ceylon cardamom is distinguished from the Malabar cardamom by the presence in the former of thick walled, conical, simple trichromes. Source: Schneider, A. (1921) The Microanalysis of Powdered Vegetable Drugs, 2nd ed. Cardamom seed coat, 200x in glycerin:dionized water Source: Amy Brush, Traditional Medicinals Cardamom seed coat II, 200x in glycerin:dionized water Source: Amy Brush, Traditional Medicinals Cardamom ca oxalate in perisperm, 200x in glycerin:dionized water Source: Amy Brush, Traditional Medicinals

High Performance Thin Layer Chromatographic Identification

Elettaria cardamomum L. Maton (seeds) HPTLC UV 365 nm Cardamom (seed) (Elettaria cardamomum L. Maton) Lane Assignments Lane 1 (1 μl) Linalool ~0.1% in methanol; Lane 2 (2 μl) Elettaria cardamomum L. Maton-1 (seed)(Guatemala); Lane 3 (2 μl) Elettaria cardamomum L. Maton-2 (seed)(Guatemala); Lane 4 (2 μl) Elettaria cardamomum L. Maton-3 (seed), Lane 5 (2 μl) Elettaria cardamomum L. Maton-3 (seed); Lane 6 (2 μl) Elettaria cardamomum L. Maton-4 (seed), Lane 7 (1 μl) Elettaria cardamomum L. Maton-4 (seed; Lane 8 (3 μl) Eugenol~0.1% in methanol, these references have been authenticated by macroscopic, microscopic &/or TLC studies according to the reference sources cited below held at Alkemists Laboratories, Costa Mesa, CA.  Stationary Phase Silica gel 60, F254, 10 x 10 cm HPTLC plates  Mobile Phase toluene: ethyl acetate [9.5/0.5]  Sample Preparation Method 0.5g+5ml dichloromethane, sonicate/centrifuge/decant, evaporate to dryness with N2, qs with 1.0 ml Toluene  Detection Method Vanillin/H2SO4 Reagent -> 110° C 5 min -> UV 365 nm  Reference see Medicinal Spices, Teuscher, E., 2006, CRC Press or The Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India Part I Volume I Source: Elan M. Sudberg, Alkemist Laboratories