Cardamon

Leafy shoots of the cardamom plant arise 1.5 to 6 metres (5 to 20 feet) from the branching rootstock. Flowering shoots, approximately 1 metre (3 feet) long, may be upright or sprawling; each bears numerous flowers about 5 cm (2 inches) in diameter with greenish petals and a purple-veined white lip. The whole fruit, 0.8 to 1.5 cm, is a green three-sided oval capsule containing 15 to 20 dark, reddish brown to brownish black, hard, angular seeds. The essential oil occurs in large parenchyma cells underlying the epidermis of the seed coat.

Processing

The fruits are picked or clipped from the stems just before maturity, cleansed, and dried in the sun or in a heated curing chamber. Cardamom may be bleached to a creamy white colour in the fumes of burning sulfur. After curing and drying, the small stems of the capsules are removed by winnowing. Decorticated cardamom consists of husked dried seeds.