CARDAMOM

About Cardamom
Cardamom is one of the world’s very ancient spices. It is native to the East originating in the forests of the western ghats in southern India, where it grows wild. Today it also grows in Sri Lanka, Guatemala, Indo China and Tanzania. The ancient Egyptians chewed cardamom seeds as a tooth cleaner; the Greeks and Romans used it as a perfume. Vikings came upon cardamom about one thousand years ago, in Constantinople, and introduced it into Scandinavia, where it remains popular to this day.Cardamom is an expensive spice, second only to saffron. It is often adulterated and there are many inferior substitutes from cardamom-related plants, such as Siam cardamom, Nepal cardamom, winged Java cardamom, and bastard cardamom. However, it is only Elettaria cardamomum which is the true cardamom. Indian cardamom is known in two main varieties: Malabar cardamom and Mysore cardamom. The Mysore variety contains higher levels of cineol and limonene and hence is more aromatic
Spice Description
Cardamom comes from the seeds of a ginger-like plant. The small, brown-black sticky seeds are contained in a pod in three double rows with about six seeds in each row. The pods are between 5-20 mm (1/4”-3/4”) long, the larger variety known as ‘black’, being brown and the smaller being green. White-bleached pods are also available. The pods are roughly triangular in cross section and oval or oblate. Their dried surface is rough and furrowed, the large ‘blacks’ having deep wrinkles. The texture of the pod is that of tough paper. Pods are available whole or split and the seeds are sold loose or ground. It is best to buy the whole pods as ground cardamom quickly loses flavour.
USES OF CARDAMOM:
Cardamom ‘the queen of spices’ has been in use in perfumery, confectionery and as a wholly consumed spice for centuries together. It was a pricedspice, traded from India since time immemorial and was an extremely popular in Europe and Arab countries. It is used mostly in confectionery in Europe and in ARAB countries it is used as a spice and as a blend with ‘gahwa’ coffee, a regular drink among the Arabs. It is also used in Asia as a major spice in a number of food preparations, in masalas and in curry mixtures.It is used in preparation of AYURVEDIC MEDICINES and is also widely used as a FLAVORING AGENT
In traditional medicine
In India, green cardamom (A. subulatum) is broadly used to treat infections in teeth and gums, to prevent and treat throat troubles, congestion of the lungs and pulmonary tuberculosis, inflammation of eyelids and also digestive disorders. It is also reportedly used as an antidote for both snake and scorpion venom.Species in the genus Amomum are also used in traditional Indian medicine. Among other species, varieties and cultivars, Amomum villosum is used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat stomach-aches, constipation, dysentery, and other digestion problems. "Tsaoko" cardamom is cultivated in Yunnan, China, both for medicinal purposes and as a spice.
Cultivation
Cardamom grows abundantly in altitudes ranging from 900 to 1370 m above sea level, with a warm humid atmosphere, evenly distributed rainfall and humus-rich loamy soil. It thrives best under moderate shade. Cardamom is propagated both vegetatively and by seeds. Seeds from well ripened fruits are sown in raised beds and when the seedlings attain a height of 25-30 cm they are transplanted into field or secondary nursery beds. Vegetativepropagation is by means of clones, a portion of the rhizome with one or two new tillers. Micropropagation is also widely employed for the propagationof cardamom. Planting is normally done in June-July with the receipt of south-west monsoon rains in pits or trenches at a spacing varying from 0.9 to 3.0 m depending on the type of cardamom.

The maiden crop in cardamom is obtained in the third year of planting. Flowering commences in April-May and continues till July-August. Harvesting is done at an interval of 30-40 days and only fruits which are just nearing ripeness are harvested. Harvested fruits are dried by exposing them to sun light or by heating or by flue curing. The dried capsules are cleaned, sorted and graded based on bulk density, colour and size. Capsules which lack
uniform green colour are bleached by using bleaching powder, sulphur dioxide or hydrogen peroxide.

The chemical composition of cardamom varies considerably with variety, region and age of the product. The principal quality of determinant is thecontent and compositon of the volatile oil. Cardamom contains between 2% and 10% essential oil, out of which the major portion is in seeds. Thevolatile oil contains about 25-40% cineole, 30-40% a-terpinyl acetate and about 1-2% limonene.
Harvesting & Curing
Cardamom starts yielding from the second year after planting. The ideal stage for harvesting is just before ripening. Capsules are to be harvested at an interval of 15 days between August and December. The post harvest operation consists of washing, pre-treatment with chemicals, curing,cleaning, grading and packing. Wash the capsules in water, immediately after harvest to remove the adhering soil and treat them with 2% washing soda for 10 minutes to retain green colour. Dry them either in sun or in drying houses by heat radiation, under controlled temperature (50 o C is optimum) to retain the delicate flavour and green colour. After drying, rub the capsules with coir mat / gunny cloth / steel mesh, sieve and grade.Cured cardamom has to be protected against light, air and temperature by packing in polythene lined gunny or cloth bags

Climate
Cardamom thrives well in areas having warm humid climate and fairly well distributed annual rainfall (1500 - 4000 mm). A temperature range of 18-280 C and an altitude of 600-1200 m above MSL is ideal. The crop requires 40-60% shade for proper growth and flowering. Being a surface feeder,availability of moisture during dry period is essential
Soil
Cardamom thrives well in areas having warm humid climate and fairly well distributed annual rainfall (1500 - 4000 mm). A temperature range of 18-280 C and an altitude of 600-1200 m above MSL is ideal. The crop requires 40-60% shade for proper growth and flowering. Being a surface feeder, availability of moisture during dry period is essential

pepper

Pepper plant
The pepper plant is a perennial woody vine growing to four metres in height on supporting trees, poles, or trellises. It is a spreading vine, rooting readily where trailing stems touch the ground. The leaves are alternate, entire, five to ten centimetres long and three to six centimetres broad. The flowers are small, produced on pendulous spikes four to eight centimetres long at the leaf nodes, the spikes lengthening to seven to 15 centimetres as the fruit matures.Black pepper is grown in soil that is neither too dry nor susceptible to flooding, is moist, well-drained and rich in organic matter. The plants are propagated by cuttings about 40 to 50 centimetres long, tied up to neighbouring trees or climbing frames at distances of about two metres apart; trees with rough bark are favoured over those with smooth bark, as the pepper plants climb rough bark more readily. Competing plants are cleared away, leaving only sufficient trees to provide shade and permit free ventilation. The roots are covered in leaf mulch and manure, and the shoots are trimmed twice a year. On dry soils the young plants require watering every other day during the dry season for the first three years. The plants bear fruit from the fourth or fifth year, and typically continue to bear fruit for seven years. The cuttings are usually cultivars, selected both for yield and quality of fruit.A single stem will bear 20 to 30 fruiting spikes. The harvest begins as soon as one or two berries at the base of the spikes begin to turn red, and before the fruit is mature, but when full grown and still hard; if allowed to ripen, the berries lose pungency, and ultimately fall off and are lost. The spikes are collected and spread out to dry in the sun, then the peppercorns are stripped off the spikes.

Black pepper
Black pepper (Piper nigrum) is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The same fruit is also used to produce white pepper and green pepper. Black pepper is native to South India and is extensively cultivated there and elsewhere in tropical regions. The fruit, known as a peppercorn when dried, is a small drupe five millimetres in diameter, dark red when fully mature, containing a single seed.Dried, ground pepper is one of the most common spices in European cuisine and its descendants, having been known and prized since antiquity for both its flavour and its use as a medicine. The spiciness of black pepper is due to the chemical piperine. Ground black peppercorn, usually referred to simply as "pepper", may be found on nearly every dinner table in some parts of the world, often alongside table salt.

Verieties of pepper
Black pepper is produced from the still-green unripe berries of the pepper plant. The berries are cooked briefly in hot water, both to clean them and to prepare them for drying. The heat ruptures cell walls in the fruit, speeding the work of browning enzymes during drying. The berries are dried in the sun or by machine for several days, during which the fruit around the seed shrinks and darkens into a thin, wrinkled black layer around the seed. Once dried, the fruits are called black peppercorns.White pepper consists of the seed only, with the fruit removed. This is usually accomplished by allowing fully ripe berries to soak in water for about a week, during which time the flesh of the fruit softens and decomposes. Rubbing then removes what remains of the fruit, and the naked seed is dried. Alternative processes are used for removing the outer fruit from the seed, including removal of the outer layer from black pepper produced from unripe berries.Black pepper is the most common, while white pepper is mainly used in dishes like light-coloured sauces or mashed potatoes, where ground black pepper would visibly stand out. There is disagreement regarding which is generally spicier. They do have differing flavours due to the presence of certain compounds in the outer fruit layer of the berry that are not found in the seed. Green pepper, like black, is made from the unripe berries. Dried green peppercorns are treated in a manner that retains the green colour, such as treatment with sulphur dioxide or freeze-drying. Pickled peppercorns, also green, are unripe berries preserved in brine or vinegar. Fresh, unpreserved green pepper berries, largely unknown in the West, are used in some Asian cuisines, particularly Thai cuisine. Their flavour has been described as piquant and fresh, with a bright aroma.They decay quickly if not dried or preserved.A rarely seen product called pink pepper or red pepper consists of ripe red pepper berries preserved in brine and vinegar. Even more rarely seen, the ripe red peppercorns can also be dried using the same colour-preserving techniques used to produce green pepper. Pink pepper from Piper nigrum is distinct from the more-common dried "pink peppercorns", which are the fruits of a plant from a different family, the Peruvian pepper tree, Schinus molle, and its relative the Brazilian pepper tree, Schinus terebinthifolius. Sichuan peppercorn is another "pepper" that is botanically unrelated to black pepper.Peppercorns are often categorised under a label describing their region or port of origin. Two well-known types come from India's Malabar Coast: Malabar pepper and Tellicherry pepper. Tellicherry is a higher-grade pepper, made from the largest, ripest 10% of berries from Malabar plants grown on Mount Tellicherry. Sarawak pepper is produced in the Malaysian portion of Borneo, and Lampong pepper on Indonesia's island of Sumatra. White Muntok pepper is another Indonesian product, from Bangka Island

Useses of pepper
Aroma and Flavour: Black pepper is used in almost all applications where spice is used, with exception of baked goods. It is used universally in sauces, gravies, processed meats, poultry, snack foods etc. Both black and white pepper are used in cuisine worldwide, at all stages of the cooking process and as a table condiment. White pepper has a distinguishably different flavor but is utilized to a lesser extent.
Culinary use: It is used in processed meats and in applications where dark specking is not desired. Black pepper is added to fruit cakes and gingerbread and is also used as a light seasoning on fresh fruit. Black pepper oleoresin is also used for similar purposes.
Medicinal and other use: Black pepper has long been recognized as a stimulant to appetite as well as an aid in the relief of nausea. In India it is being used since time immemorial as a medicine for a number of health problems.

Cultivation of pepper
The plant requires a long rainy season, fairly high temperatures, and partial shade for the best growth. Propagation is usually by stem cuttings. The cuttings are set out near a tree or a pole that will serve as a support. Black pepper plants are sometimes interspersed in tea or coffee plantations. They begin bearing in 2 to 5 years and may produce for as long as 40 years. The berries are picked when they begin to turn red.