Green cardamom
Elettaria cardamomum
- Names in the book
- Lag̃kuas, Lag̃kawas, Vis.; Cardamon, Eng.
- Used for
- Stomach and digestion
- Colours
- flowerwhite, violetpodgreen
- Native range
- Southern India
- In the Philippines, per the book
- Visayan Islands.
- Family
- Zingiberaceae, filed in the book under Zingiberaceæ
- Printed as
- Elettaria Cardamomum, White.
- Sources
- Page 230 on Project Gutenberg · Wikipedia
The Tagalog name the book gives, langkawas, belongs today to galangal, Alpinia galanga.
The plant today
Elettaria cardamomum, commonly known as green cardamom or true cardamom, is a herbaceous, perennial plant in the ginger family, native to southern India. It is the most common of the species whose seeds are used as a spice called cardamom that has a strong aroma used in both savory and sweet cooking. It is cultivated widely in tropical regions and reportedly naturalized in Réunion, Indochina, and Costa Rica.
Excerpt from “Elettaria cardamomum” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Recorded in the Philippines
GBIF holds no records of this plant from the Philippines.
Checked against GBIF occurrence records, October 2026.
What the 1901 book says
A historical record, quoted as printed. Doses and remedies here are not medical advice.
Uses
This plant, though official in several pharmacopœias, is not used as a medicine in the Philippines, probably on account of its scarcity here. The seeds are used as a condiment; they are stimulant and carminative and yield good results in atonic dyspepsia, nervous depression and spasmodic or flatulent affections of the intestine. The dose of the powdered seeds is from 0.60–1.50 grams in pill form; the tincture is, however, more convenient and is given in doses of from 4 to 8 grams.
Botanical description
A plant with a scaly rhizome and adventitious roots from which spring the stems, some of which bear leaves and others flowers. The leaves are alternate, in pairs; extended, lanceolate blade, with a short petiole. Branches bearing flowers, short, flexible and scaly. The flowers spring from the sheaths of the leaves. Calyx tubular, 3-toothed; second calyx with limb divided into 3 unequal lobules. Stamens 3. Ovary inferior, 3 many-ovuled compartments. Style simple. Stigma rounded. Fruit an oblong, ovoid capsule, 3-celled, trivalvate. Seeds blackish, albuminous.
Recent research
The most cited papers since 2022 that name this plant in the title, pulled from Europe PMC in October 2026. Titles are the authors' own and the findings have not been reviewed here.
- Chemical Profile, Antibacterial and Antioxidant Potential of Zingiber officinale Roscoe and Elettaria cardamomum (L.) Maton Essential Oils and Extracts
- Protective Role of Phenolic Compounds from Whole Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum (L.) Maton) against LPS-Induced Inflammation in Colon and Macrophage Cells
- Antioxidant Activity and GC-MS Profile of Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum) Essential Oil Obtained by a Combined Extraction Method-Instant Controlled Pressure Drop Technology Coupled with Sonication