Botanical Name: Elettaria cardamomum
Common Name: Cardamom oil
Native Country: India and Sri lanka
Parts Used: Seeds of the fruit just before they are ripe
Extraction Method: Steam Distilled
Aroma: Sweet, spicy and almost balsamic

Uses: Cardamom oil is particularly helpful for the digestive system. It works as a laxative and soothes colic, wind, dyspepsia and nausea-even nausea in pregnancy. It warms the stomach and helps with heartburn. When feeling weak and mentally fatigued, cardamom oil can help with its refreshing and uplifting effect.

Description: It grows up to 4 meters (13 feet) high and has long, green silky blades, small yellowy flowers with a violet tip and a large fleshy rhizome, similar to ginger. Oblong gray fruits follow the flowers, each containing many seeds. Cardamom was well known in ancient times and the Egyptians used it in perfumes and incense and chewed it to whiten their teeth, while the Romans used it for their stomachs when they over indulged. The arabs ground it to use their coffee and it is an important ingredient in Asian cooking. Velerius COrdus first distilled essential oil in 1544 after the Portuguese discovered the East.