174  Cardamom  and  Oil  of  Cardamom.     { A^°n^9ioarm' 
are  continuously  taking  place  in  commerce  and  the  need,  therefore, 
of  frequent  revision  of  the  statements  in  text-books  and  accepted 
authorities  regarding  the  sources  of  drug  products.  Only  a  portion 
of  the  cardamom  of  commerce  is  now  "  obtained  from  the  wild 
plants  growing  in  the  Malabar  or  west  coast  of  India." 
Since  1881,  the  cultivation  of  Elettaria  Cardamomum  in  Ceylon 
has  been  very  successfully  carried  on  and  the  quantity  of  the  fruit 
exported  from  there  has  been  continually  increasing,  and  (the 
appearance  and  quality  more  and  more  closely  simulating  the  best  of 
the  true  Malabar  product.  "  Ceylon-Malabar  Cardamom  "  is  now 
an  established  commercial  variety  2  and  the  "  Mysore  "  variety  is 
likewise  imitated  and  produced  on  that  island.  Hence  the  names 
heretofore  used  to  designate  commercial  varieties  of  cardamoms 
now  become  meaningless  as  designating  the  countries  of  growth  and 
export.    Parry  sums  up  this  situation  as  follows : 
"  The  majority  of  the  cardamoms  of  commerce  are  imported  from 
Ceylon  and  may  be  described  as  '  Ceylon  Malabars  or  Ceylon  My- 
sores,'  according  as  they  fit  in  with  descriptions."  3 
Gildemeister  and  Hoffmann  make  the  unqualified  statement  that, 
"  The  cardamom  oil  of  commerce  is  not  distilled  from  the  official 
Malabar  cardamom  from  Elettaria  Cardamomum  White  et  Maton, 
but  from  the  long  Ceylon,  the  wild  growing  cardamom  of  that  island, 
the  fruit  of  E.  major  of  Smith,  the  E.  Cardamomum  var.  of 
Fliickiger.  They  describe  this  oil  as  light  yellow,  somewhat  viscid 
and  having  a  specific  gravity  0.895  to  0.905  and  an  optical  rotation 
of  +i2°to-(-i50  and  yielding  a  turbid  solution  in  70  per  cent, 
alcohol."  4 
They  further  state  "  that  on  account  of  their  high  price,  the 
official  Malabar  and  Madras  cardamoms  from  Ele>ttaria  Cardamo- 
mum are  seldom  used  in  the  manufacture  of  the  volatile  oil."  They 
give  the  characters  of  the  Malabar  seed  oil.  specific  gravity  0.933 
to  0.943  and  optical  rotation  +  to  +  340  52'  and  soluble  in  four 
and  more  parts  of  70  per  cent,  alcohol.5 
E.  Parry c  has  examined  samples  of  oils  distilled  from  both 
2  Arzneidrogen,  Dr.  Heinrich  Zornig,  Leipzig,  1909,  fol.  196. 
3  Parry,  Chemistry  of  Essential  Oils  and  Artificial  Perfumes,  1908,  fol. 
197. 
1  The  Volatile  Oils,  Gildemeister  &  Hoffmann,  translation  of  E.  Kremers, 
SIS- 
5  Ibid.,  316. 
6  Loc.  cit,  198. 
