FRUCTUS CARDAMOM!. 648 



fering from resin in being insoluble in alcohol. The corky layer is 

 remarkable from its cells having undulated walls. 



Chemical Composition — The odour of galangal is due to an 

 essential oil, -which the rhizoma yields to the extent of only 07 per 

 cent., and which we found to be very slightly deviating the plane of 

 polarization to the left. 



Brandes ' extracted from Galangal, by means of ether, an inodorous, 

 tasteless, crystalline body called Kampfend, which is worthy of further 

 examination. 



The pungent principle of the drug, which is probably analogous to 

 that of ginger, has not been studied. 



Commerce — Galangal is shipped from Canton to other ports of 

 China, to India and Europe, but there are no general statistics to give 

 an idea of the total production. From official returns quoted by Hance, 

 the export of the year 1869, which seems to have been exceptionally 

 large, amounted to 370,800 lb. From Kiung-chow, island of Hainan, 

 2,113 peculs (281,733 lb.) were exported in 1877. 



Uses — The drug is an aromatic stimulant of the nature of ginger, 

 now nearly obsolete in British medicine. It is still a popular remedy 

 and spice in Livonia, Esthonia and central Russia, and by the Tartars 

 is taken with tea. It is also in some requisition in Russia among 

 brewers, and the manufacturers of vinegar and cordials, and finally as 

 a cattle medicine. 



Substitute — The rhizoma of Al^yina Gahmga Willd., a plant of 

 Java, constitutes the drug known as Radix Galangce majoris or Greater 

 Galangal, packages of which occasionally appear in the London drug 

 sales. It may be at once distinguished from the Chinese drug by its 

 much larger size and the pale buff hue of its internal substance, the 

 latter in strons: contrast with the oranore-brown outer skin. 



FRUCTUS CARDAMOMI. 



Semina CardrimoTtii minoris; Cardamoms, Malabar C'<ri'ilimoms ; 

 F. Cardamames; G. Cardamomen. 



botanical Origin — Elettaria- Cardamomium Maton (Alpmia Car- 

 damomurn Roxb.), a flag-like perennial plant, 6 to 12 feet high, with 

 large lanceolate leaves on long sheathing stalks, and flowers in lax 

 flexuose horizontal scapes, 6 to 18 inches in length, which are thrown 

 out to the number of 3 or 4, close to the ground. The friiit is ovoid, 

 three-sided, plump and smooth, with a fleshy green pericarp. 



The Cardamom plant grows abundantly, both wild and under culti- 

 vation, in the moist shady mountain forests of North Canara, Coorg and 

 Wynaad on the Malabar Coast; at an elevation of 2.500 to 5000 feet above 

 the sea. It is truly wild in Canara and in the Anamalai, Cochin and 

 Travancore forests.^ The cardamom region has a mean temperature of 

 22 C. (72° F.), and a mean rainfall of 121 inches. 



^ Archiv der Pharm. xix. (1839) 52. Laccadive group, west of Malabar, is in- 



- From Elettari, the ilallyalim name of habited by Moplahs, known (as we are 



the plant. — Fig. in Bentley and Trimen's infonned by Dr. King, Calcutta) in the 



Med. Plants, part 24 (1877). south of India as dealers in cardamoms. 

 •* The small ' ' Cardamom " island in the 



