Small cardamom

Small cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum Maton) and large cardamom (Amomum subulatum Roxburgh)... 

Small cardamom, known as the queen of spices , which belongs to the family of Zingiberaceae, is a rich spice obtained from the seeds of a perennial plant, Elettaria car-damomum Maton. It is one of the highly prized spices of the world and is the third most expensive spice after saffron and vanilla. Cardamom is one of those spices that cross the sweet/savoury boundary between desserts and main dishes. The original home of this precious spice is the mountains of the south-western parts of the Indian Peninsula. As early as the 4th century bc, cardamom was used in India as a medicinal herb and was an article of Greek and Roman trade. India had a virtual monopoly of cardamom until recently. Cardamom cultivation in India is confined to three states Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu (Korikanthimath et al., 2002) However, now it is cultivated in Guatemala, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Laos, Nepal, Vietnam, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico and Tanzania (Mehra, 2001). 

Emirates and India, have maximum consumption and these countries share around 60% of the world s consumption. The Scandinavian countries like Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Iceland have around 16% share in the world consumption. The rest of the European countries have 14% share, Japan has 3% share and the USA has 2.5% share in world consumption. Global consumption of cardamom is estimated as 15,000-24,0001 On the other hand, the current domestic demand for small cardamom has been estimated as 11,000 MT (http //www.nmce. com/commodityStudy/Cardamom study, jsp). 

Data on the export of small cardamom from India for the period 1995/96 to 2005/06 are given in Table 3.1 (Anon., 2007). 

Table 3.1. Export of small cardamom from India.

Table 3.3. Main components of volatile oil present in small cardamom.

Green Faq type - small cardamoms with a grey-green colour. 

Small cardamom (E. cardamomum), known for its sweet and highly aromatic characteristics, enjoys an enviable commercial value... 

Large cardamom is the dried fruit of a perennial herbaceous plant. Its quality characteristics are different from those of small cardamom. It is valued for its acceptable taste, flavour and aroma. The spice is used in rice preparations and meat dishes, besides a wide range of beverages and sweets. 

The chemical composition of large cardamom (Table 4.3) differs with variety, region and age. The seeds contain 3% essential oil, which is dominated by 1,8-cineole (more than 70%). Smaller and variable amounts of limonene, terpinene, terpineol, terpinyl acetate and sabinene have also been reported. Table 4.4 compares the composition of large cardamom seeds with small cardamom seeds (Singh, 1978). 

Table 4.4. Comparison of chemical analysis of large and small cardamom seeds. ...

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