Cardamom Benefits & Information

The Sanskrit name for cardamom is "ela" or "trui." In Urdu/Hindi/Gujarati and some Southern Indian languages, it is called "elaichi" or "elchi." In Malayalam, it is "Aelam". In Telugu & Tamil, it is "elakkai" and in Kannada it is "yelakki"

Cardamon is traditionally a culinary herb. Its medicinal and health giving properties are focused on the digestion and stomach. It is known to relieve flatulence and gripping pains. It also stimulates the appetite and flow of bile.

Crush 1 teaspoon of seeds with a pestle and mortar, and then pour over 1 cup of boiling water, leave to infuse for 15 minutes, drink 3 times per day.

In the Middle East, green cardamom powder is used as a spice for sweet dishes as well as traditional flavouring in coffee and tea. Cardamom pods are ground together with coffee beans to produce a powdered mixture of the two, which is boiled with water to make coffee. Cardamom is also used in some extent in savoury dishes. In Arabic, cardamom is called al-Hayl. In Persian, it is called hel. In Hebrew, it is also called hel. In Gujarati (a derivative of Sanskrit), it is "E-li-che". In some Middle Eastern countries, coffee and cardamom are often ground in a wooden mortar and cooked together in a mihbaz, an oven using wood or gas, to produce mixtures that are as much as forty percent cardamom.
In South Asia, green cardamom is often used in traditional Indian sweets and in Masala chai (spiced tea). Cardamon is blended with cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, cloves, fennel seeds, liquorice root, and vanilla bean, along with black tea, milk and sugar to create this delicious Indian tea.

4% volatile oil including terpineol, cineole, limonene, sabinene and pinene.