Cardamom Oil

#### Cardamom Oil. **Cardamom**** ****Oil**** **is one of the oldest essential oils known. In the reports of Valerius Cordus dated 1540, cardamom oil is described, and its distillation is outlined. The oil is produced by steam distillation of the seeds of Elettaria Cardamomum, a plant of the ginger family. This plant grows wild, and is also cultivated in Ceylon, India (Malabar coast, Travancore, Canara and other provinces), in Guatemala, and lately in El Salvador, Central America. The seeds are enclosed in husks (hulls), and should not be removed from the almost odorless hulls until immediately prior to distillation. The so-called “green” cardamom, e.g. “Green Aleppy”, which gives a high yield of essential oil (in rare cases up to 8%, usually 4 to 6%), is preferred as distillation material. The essential oil from “green” types of cardamom smells more of cineole than does an oil from the bleached or pale yellow, straw-colored cardamom (fruits). Until recent years, all cardamom oil was produced in Europe and in the U.S.A., but in the 1950’s, distillation took place on an increasing scale in India and Ceylon. India is, by far, the largest consumer of cardamom spice in the world. It is estimated that India uses between 50 and 65% of the total world production. Guatemala is the second largest producer of cardamom, but still comes nowhere near the quantities produced by India and Ceylon. A very good cardamom oil is distilled locally in Guatemala. It compares favorably with any other cardamom oil on the market in respect to odor and flavor. Numerous varieties of cardamom, useful as spice, grow wild or semiwild, and are cultivated in Madagascar, east and west Africa, central Africa, China, Siam and Indonesia. These have little or no importance as a source of essential oil. **Cardamom Oil **is an almost colorless or pale yellow to light brownish liquid. It darkens when exposed to daylight. The locally distilled oils are generally darker than those distilled in Europe or the U.S.A. Guatemalan oil is distilled in comparatively modern equipment and under experienced technical supervision. It is also light colored. The odor of cardamom oil is warm-spicy, aromatic (in the author’s opinion it is the most “aromatic” of all the oils from “aromatic” seeds), at first penetrating camphoraceous-cineole-like or somewhat medicinal, reminiscent of eucalyptus. Later, it becomes balsamic-woody, increasingly sweet and almost floral on the dryout. The odor is extremely tenacious with a delightful, warm spiciness and balsamic-floral undertone. The main constituents of cardamom oil are cineole, terpinylacetate, terpineol, borneol and terpenes. AU of these can be and are produced synthetically at a fraction of the price of cardamom oil. Obviously, adulteration takes place on a really big scale, and only a good experience with genuine oil, for example of his own distillation, will enable a perfumer to judge successfully between a true oil and an adulterated one. Spanish sage oil, pine oil fractions, etc. are also used in the above fraud. The flavor of cardamom oil is rich-aromatic, warm and spicy, somewhat burning or pungent at high concentration, and faintly bitter unless well diluted. The use level of this oil in food is strongly dependent upon the further processing of the food (high temperatures for baked goods, etc.) but it would be about 0.20 to 0.50% while the **Minimum Perceptible **is 0.04 to 0.05 mg% for a good and true cardamom oil. The spice itself is one of the “musts” in the genuine east Indian curry powder. Apart from its use as a spice in blends, cardamom oil replaces the spice in the canning industry for pickles, meat sauces, seasonings, etc. where uniform quality and constant effect are of paramount importance. In certain areas, e.g. the Scandinavian and north European countries, cardamom is a very popular addition to bread and all baked goods, while the spice is hardly known at all to the American housewife. In perfumery, the oil will not only impart spiciness, but also a warm, sweet note which fits into floral bases such as muguet and rose. Cardamom oil blends well with bergamot, olibanum, ylang-ylang, labdanum products, nerol, methylionones, cedarwood derivatives, etc. or with heliotropine, cassione, isoeugenol, hydroxycitronellal, etc. Coriander oil is an extremely fine modifier for cardamom oil in perfumery (and in flavors, too!). The oil imparts warmth in Oriental perfume bases, chypres and face powder perfumes. Recently, a few European and American spice houses started production of **Cardamom**** ****Oleoresin**** **which reproduces the organoleptic virtues of the true spice even more closely than does the oil. The oleoresin is produced by extraction of the seed with ethylether, petroleum ether or other volatile solvent. The extract will contain about 10% of a fixed oil which is odorless. Extraction with hot alcohol produces a very dark extract which is free from fixed oil. The ether extract is an orange-brown or greenish-brown liquid of rich and “true-to-nature” odor. An **Ultrasonic Extract of Cardamom **is also available. The annual world production of cardamom oil seems to adjust itself to the demand. The oil is comparatively expensive, but this is not due to scarcity of raw material.