Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum)

You can ease an upset stomach, stop a toothache, cool off menopausal symptoms, and much more with herbs you'll find right in your own kitchen

Healing herbs grow everywhere-in your backyard and deep in the Amazon rain forest, high on remote mountain ridges and in sun-baked deserts, in shady woodland, and even in the sea. Some, such as dandelion, are often scorned as weeds; others, such as red clover, alfalfa, and oats, are common farm crops. Still others, such as thyme and cayenne pepper, may be sitting in your kitchen spice rack right now.

Spices: Cardamom is our featured spice for this quarter, and a good lesson in the vagaries of spice trading. The price for decorticated (seed pod removed) quality has almost tripled recently due to some unusual developments: 1) the Muslim holiday of Ramadan came early this year. Most of the world's crop of Cardamom is used in Arab countries to flavor coffee. Coffee is a very popular beverage in these countries and seems to be especially popular during Ramadan, when people are required to fast from sunrise to sundown every day.

BERKELEY, Calif.--Indian restaurants traditionally serve little silver bowls of spices after a meal. The mix usually includes cardamom, which people in the Middle East have chewed since ancient times. Now researchers have found that chewing cardamom may do more than refresh the mouth and mask bad breath with its strong flavor--it may help prevent cavities, too.

Since many common spices historically have doubled as bacteria-fighting folk remedies, chemist Isao Kubo and his colleagues at the University of California at Berkeley decided to investigate the properties of cardamom seed.

Reviews the book "Cardamom: The Genus Elettaria," edited by P.N. Ravindran and K.J. Madhusoodanan.

The article focuses on the significance of the cardamom seeds as a natural digestive aid. According to Ayurveda, acid from tea and coffee and spicy foods increase gas-producing mucus. Cardamom se...