Eden Apothecary · Herb Profile
Elettaria cardamomum
Pronounced KAR-duh-mum; el-uh-TAIR-ee-uh kar-duh-MOH-mum
Warm, dry, sweet-pungent aromatic: the gentle carminative that kindles cold, damp, sluggish digestion, settles nausea and rising qi, and sweetens the breath.
Culinary and food amounts considered safe. Insufficient data for concentrated medicinal doses; standard guidance is to limit cardamom to food amounts during pregnancy. Not a documented abortifacient at food doses. (AHPA Botanical Safety Handbook 2nd ed.; Natural Medicines / WebMD-RxList.)
Culinary and food amounts considered safe and traditionally used. Insufficient data for concentrated medicinal doses; keep to food and tea amounts. (AHPA Botanical Safety Handbook 2nd ed.)
Culinary amounts safe and commonly used (chai, digestive seeds). Reserve concentrated extracts and essential oil for older children under guidance.
Culinary amounts broadly safe. Therapeutic doses: caution in cholelithiasis (may trigger biliary colic). The concentrated essential oil is for dilute aromatic or topical use, not high-dose internal use.
Active gallstones with colic (medicinal doses). No absolute contraindications at culinary doses.
Cultivated at scale in the shaded understory of the Western Ghats (India) and in Guatemala; not listed as at-risk. Prefer shade-grown, single-origin pods for potency and traceability; wild Elettaria stands in the Western Ghats benefit from habitat-conscious sourcing.
Not named in the canonical biblical texts. Known to Greco-Roman antiquity as 'kardamomon' or 'amomum': described by Dioscorides (De Materia Medica) and Pliny, and long traded from the Malabar coast of India along the Levantine spice routes. A classic Ayurvedic aromatic (Sanskrit Ela).
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