Cardamom

Statema, B. C. P.

Plant

Cardamom

Greek kardamomon; grains of paradise (of some writers)

Known today as: Elettaria cardamomum, of the ginger family, whose seeds come in pale three-sided pods from India.
Kind: Plant, in 1 older authority
Constituents: 1,8-cineole, alpha-terpinyl acetate, limonene
Earliest authority here: Dioscorides (c. AD 40–90)
Qualities: Hot and dry (Galenic tradition). What the degrees mean
In other databases: Plants of the World Online search · GBIF search · Wikidata search

Revised October 1, 2026: Lore added from texts read in full. Version 1, first published September 30, 2026.

Cardamom: what was it used for?

A warming aromatic, for a cold stomach, wind, and the head; in cordials and compounds.

Cardamom: what does modern science say?

A spice; no clinical evidence for its medical uses.

Pharmacognosy & Toxicology

Constituents

Mechanism

The oil relaxes gut smooth muscle and is carminative; cineole is expectorant. Small trials report a fall in blood pressure in hypertensives at 3 g a day, which is not established.

Toxic dose

Safe in food and spice amounts; the oil in quantity irritates the stomach.

Standing

In the German tradition (Commission E) for dyspepsia; no EMA monograph.

Blumenthal, M., ed. (1998). The Complete German Commission E Monographs, “Cardamom seed.” Standard reference work
Verma, S. K., et al. (2009). “Blood pressure lowering, fibrinolysis enhancing and antioxidant activities of cardamom.” Indian Journal of Biochemistry and Biophysics 46. Verified against its record · PMID 20361714

The abstract of each source, beneath its citation. For Club members. About the Club or sign in.

Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.

Cardamom: what lore surrounds it?

Grieve: “In Egypt they are ground and put in coffee, and in the East Indies are used both as a condiment and for chewing with betel. Their use was known to the ancients.” The Ceylon wild cardamoms are “sometimes called in the East, Grains of Paradise, but they are not the product known by that name in Europe,” and the round Siam cardamoms “are probably those referred to by Dioscorides, and called Amomi uva by Pliny.”

Cardamom: what did the older authorities say?

Dioscorides: Describes kardamomon brought from Armenia and the Bosporus, though whether his plant was ours is uncertain.

Sources

Dioscorides, De materia medica. Read in part · the text read
Pomet, P. (1694). Histoire générale des drogues (English, A Compleat History of Druggs, 1712). Read in part · the text read
Grieve, M. (1931). A Modern Herbal, “Cardamoms.” botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/c/cardam21.html Standard reference work

Verification

Checked

October 1, 2026

Passes

Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
Each quotation from the older authorities checked word for word against the text, read in full

Sources

5 cited: 2 read in part, 1 verified against its record, 2 standard reference work. 1 with the abstract on file.

Corrections

None were needed.

What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.

Cite This Entry

Version 1 · first published September 30, 2026 · last revised October 1, 2026

Chicago: “Cardamom.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 1, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/cardamom.
MLA: “Cardamom.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 1 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/cardamom. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
APA: Cardamom. (2026, October 1). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/cardamom

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