Dumas and Péligot (1834) state to have obtained from the essential oil of cardamoms (inodorous?) crystals of terpin, C₁₀H₁₆ + 3 OH₂. The ash of cardamoms, in common with that of several other plants of the same order, is remarkably rich in manganese.[2399]
Commerce—There are no statistics to show the production of cardamoms in the south of India or even the quantity exported. The shipments in the year 1872-73 from Bombay, to which port the drug is largely sent from the Madras Presidency, amounted to 1,650 cwt., of which 1,055 cwt. were exported to the United Kingdom.[2400]
Cardamoms, the produce of Ceylon and therefore of the large variety, were exported from that island in 1872 to the extent of 9,273 lb.—the whole quantity being shipped to the United Kingdom.[2401]
Uses—Cardamoms are an agreeable aromatic, often administered in conjunction with other medicines. As an ingredient in curry powder, they have also some use as a condiment. But the consumption in England is small in comparison with what it is in Russia, Sweden, Norway and parts of Germany, where they are constantly employed as a spice for the flavouring of cakes. In these countries Ceylon cardamoms are also used, but exclusively for the manufacture of liqueurs. In India, cardamoms, besides being used in medicine, are employed as a condiment and for chewing with betel.
Other sorts of Cardamom.
The fruits of several other plants of the order Zingiberaceæ have at various times been employed in pharmacy under the common name of Cardamom. We shall here notice only those which have some importance in European or Indian commerce.[2402]
Round or Cluster Cardamom—Amomum Cardamomum L., the mother plant of this drug, is a native of Cambodia, Siam, Sumatra and Java.
During the intercourse with Siam, which was frequent in the early part of the 17th century, this drug, which is there in common use, occasionally found its way into Europe. Clusius received a specimen of it in 1605 as the true Amomum of the ancients, and figured it as a great rarity.[2403] As Amomum verum it had a place in the pharmacopœias of this period. Parkinson (1640), who figures it as Amomum genuinum, says that “of late days it hath been sent to Venice from the East Indies.” Dale (1693) and Pomet (1694) both regarded it as a rare drug; the latter says it is brought from Holland, and that it is the only thing that ought to be used when Amomum is ordered. In 1751 it was so scarce that in making the Theriaca Andromachi some other drug had always to be substituted for it.[2404]
Thus it had completely disappeared, when about the year 1853 commercial relations were re-opened with Siam; and among the commodities poured into the market were Round Cardamoms. They were not appreciated, and the importations becoming unprofitable, soon ceased.[2405] They are nevertheless an article of considerable traffic in Eastern Asia.
Round Cardamoms are produced in small compact bunches.[2406] Each fruit is globular, ⁵/₁₀ to ⁷/₁₀ of an inch in diameter, marked with longitudinal furrows, and sometimes distinctly three-lobed. The pericarp is thin, fragile, somewhat hairy, of a buff colour, enclosing a three-lobed mass of seeds, which are mostly shrivelled as if the fruit had been gathered unripe. The seeds, which have a general resemblance to those of the Malabar cardamom, have a strong camphoraceous, aromatic taste.