Also spelled CARDAMON, spice consisting of whole or ground dried fruit, or seeds, of Elettaria cardamomum, a herbaceous perennial of the ginger family (Zingiberaceae). The seeds have a warm, slightly pungent, and highly aromatic flavour somewhat reminiscent of camphor. They are a popular seasoning in Oriental dishes, particularly curries, and in Scandinavian pastries. Two varieties are grown in India but cardamom is also cultivated in Guatemala and Sri Lanka. Indian cardamom is considered premium quality: the Malabar variety, more rounded in shape, has a pleasant mellow flavor; the Mysore variety, which is ribbed and three-cornered, has a slightly harsher flavor. Guatemalan cardamom compares favorably with that of Indian origin. Cardamom was grown in the garden of the king of Babylon in 721 b.c. The ancient Greeks and Romans used cardamom in perfumes and it is used in the cosmetic industry today. Native to the moist forests of southern India, cardamom fruit may be collected from wild plants; but most is cultivated in India, Sri Lanka, and Guatemala. Leafy shoots arise 1.5 to 6 m (5 to 20 feet) from the branching rootstock. Flowering shoots, approximately 1 m long, may be upright or sprawling; each bears numerous flowers about 5 cm (2 inches) in diameter with greenish petals and a purple-veined white lip. The whole fruit, 0.8 to 1.5 cm, is a green, three-sided oval capsule containing 15 to 20 dark, reddish brown to brownish black, hard, angular seeds. They are picked or clipped from the stems just before maturity, cleansed, and dried in the sun or in a heated curing chamber. Cardamom may be bleached to a creamy white colour in the fumes of burning sulfur. After curing and drying, the small stems of the capsules are removed by winnowing. Decorticated cardamom consists of husked dried seeds. The essential oil occurs in large parenchyma cells underlying the epidermis of the seed coat. The essential oil content varies from 2 to 10 percent; its principal components are cineole and -terpinyl acetate. The name cardamom is sometimes applied to other similar spices of the ginger family (Amomum, Aframomum, Alpinia) used in cuisines of Africa and Asia or as commercial adulterants of true cardamoms.

 The crop being sensitive to weather and its price very sensitive to export demand, wide fluctuations in the total output of cardamom and its unit price of the produce began to move on a course of steady decline, and a buyer's market developed, the fixed share of two-fifths of the value accruing to the growers ceased to give them any incentive for increasing production.Moreover the government found it impossible to ensure a statisfactory system of procurement a situation which further accentuated the feelling of Uncertainty among the growers as well as the government .