ABSTRACT
Ranked as the world’s third most expensive spice (saffron number one, vanilla number two), cardamom is almost as good a medicine as it is a spice, but there are cheaper alternatives. As McCormick (1981) notes, “the value of spices to Europeans in the late Middle Ages can hardly be imagined today. A handful of cardamom was worth as much as a poor man’s yearly wages. Many a slave was bought and sold for a few handfuls of peppercorn” (McCormick, 1981). Reported to be antidotal, aperitif, balsamic, carminative, diuretic, stimulant, and stomachic. Finely powdered seed are snuffed for headache. Cardamoms, fried and mixed with mastic and milk, are used for bladder problems (DEP). For nausea and vomiting, they are mixed into a pomegranate sherbet. The seeds are popularly believed to be aphrodisiac (DAD, DEP).
