Ela): Benefits, Uses & Dosage

If you have ever chewed a green pod after a heavy meal and felt your mouth and stomach settle within minutes, you already know why Ayurveda values Cardamom. It is one of the rare aromatic kitchen spices that carries a cooling potency, which lets it calm digestion without the fire of most warming spices.

Botanically it is Elettaria cardamomum Maton, the small green cardamom. The Sahasra Yoga Drug Index lists its Sanskrit synonyms as (Ela, Trit, Triti, Tudi), and in India it is widely known as Elaichi. Classical texts recognise two cardamoms: the small green pod (Sukshma Ela) and the larger, smokier black pod (Sthula Ela or Brihat Ela). This page is about the green one.

Its taste is sweet and pungent (Madhura, Katu Rasa), its potency is cooling (Sheeta Virya), and its post-digestive effect is pungent (Katu Vipaka), meaning the taste it leaves on the body after digestion. It calms Vata and Kapha, while in larger amounts it can raise Pitta. Traditional uses center on digestion, cough, breathlessness, burning urination and hemorrhoids, and it simply makes food taste better.

Cardamom's benefits come from one unusual combination: an aromatic, pungent spice with a cooling potency. That lets it kindle digestion and clear the head and chest without overheating the body the way most carminatives do.

Digestion, Gas and Bloating

Cardamom is a classical digestant (Deepana), a herb that kindles digestive fire. It works high in the gut, easing belching and the heavy, distended feeling after a rich meal by dispersing trapped wind (Apana Vata), the downward-moving air the body is meant to release.

Its pungent post-digestive effect stokes digestion while the cooling potency keeps it gentle. That is why it suits people with gas and flatulence who cannot tolerate sharper spices.

Nausea and Bad Taste in the Mouth

Bhavaprakasha classes cardamom as a remover of bad taste (Mukha-vairasya-hara) and a mouth-cleanser (Mukha-shodhaka). Sharangadhara Samhita makes it the lead aromatic in Eladi Choorna, a classical powder for vomiting.

For nausea and vomiting, the traditional kitchen remedy is two pinches of cardamom and half a teaspoon of honey stirred into half a cup of yogurt. Its aromatic oils act fast on the upper digestive tract.

Cough and Breathlessness

Cardamom is listed for cough and breathlessness, including asthma-type wheezing. The traditional preparation is a pinch of cardamom, a pinch of rock salt, one teaspoon of ghee and half a teaspoon of honey, mixed and licked slowly from a spoon. Its Kapha-reducing action is what drives this use.

Urinary Burning and Bleeding

Because its potency is cooling, cardamom is used where heat dominates. For burning urination, take one pinch with half a cup of cucumber juice twice a day.

For bleeding disorders, including bleeding piles, a pinch each of cardamom, saffron and nutmeg is mixed with half a teaspoon of honey and one teaspoon of aloe vera juice, taken twice a day.

Vitality, Teeth and Everyday Balance

For sexual debility, the traditional drink is one cup of hot milk with half a teaspoon of ghee and a pinch each of cardamom and hing (asafoetida). For dental cavities, two pinches of cardamom are eaten with oatmeal or cornmeal porridge.

If you drink coffee, a pinch of ginger and cardamom added to the cup is the classic way to soften its stressful effect on the body.

Rasa (Taste): Sweet, Pungent

Virya (Energy): Cooling

Vipak (Post-digestive effect): Pungent

Dosha: Decreases vata and kapha, increases pitta

Good for cough, breathlessness, burning urination and hemorrhoids. It is a digestant and improves the flavor of food.

• Sexual debility: Drink 1 cup of hot milk with ½ teaspoon of ghee and a pinch each of cardamom and hing.
• Bleeding disorders: A pinch each of cardamom, saffron and nutmeg, mixed with ½ teaspoon of honey and 1 teaspoon of aloe vera juice, taken twice a day.
• Cough and breathlessness: A pinch of cardamom, a pinch of rock salt, 1 teaspoon of ghee and ½ teaspoon of honey mixed together and licked from a spoon.
• Burning urination: 1 pinch of cardamom and ½ cup of cucumber juice, 2 times a day.
• Nausea: 2 pinches of cardamom and ½ teaspoon of honey, mixed with ½ cup of yogurt.
• Dental cavities: Eat 2 pinches of cardamom with oatmeal or cornmeal porridge.
• Coffee stress: If you drink coffee, a pinch of ginger and cardamom can help neutralize the stressful effect on adrenal glands.

With cardamom the kitchen form is also the medicinal form. Whole green pods keep their aromatic oils far longer than pre-ground powder, so buy pods and crush them as you need them.

Choosing a Vehicle

Ayurveda pays close attention to the vehicle (Anupana), the food or liquid a herb is taken with, because it steers the herb toward a goal. With cardamom:

• Honey and ghee for cough and breathlessness, with a pinch of rock salt.
• Yogurt and honey for nausea.
• Cucumber juice for burning urination.
• Hot milk and ghee, with a pinch of hing, for low vitality.
• Honey and aloe vera juice, with saffron and nutmeg, for bleeding conditions.

Cover the cup when steeping cardamom tea so the volatile oils do not escape. For a daily digestive habit, a 2 to 4 week run followed by as-needed use works well, and low culinary doses are fine long term.

Cardamom is one of the gentlest spices in the Ayurvedic kitchen and is very well tolerated at culinary and tea-strength doses. The few cautions are specific.

• Pitta: although its potency is cooling, cardamom's pungency means it can increase Pitta. If you run hot, keep to moderate doses and watch for heartburn or irritability.
• Gallstones: high doses have occasionally been linked to triggering gallbladder contraction. Small culinary amounts are fine; avoid concentrated doses if you have active gallstones.
• Allergy: allergy is rare, but take care if you react to ginger or turmeric, which belong to the same plant family.
• Heart medication: concentrated cardamom supplements may interact with calcium-channel blockers and other cardiac drugs. Check with your doctor before taking more than food amounts.
• Pregnancy: culinary and tea doses are traditionally considered safe. Avoid concentrated essential oil and large daily doses of powder.

Our sources record no specific overdose picture. As with any herb, stop if you notice new symptoms and talk to a practitioner.

Cardamom often gets weighed against other kitchen digestives. Here is how it compares with the alternatives people ask about most.

Pregnancy and Nursing

Cardamom is traditionally regarded as one of the safest aromatic spices in pregnancy and is used for morning sickness and digestive comfort. Stay within food and tea doses, such as 1 to 2 pods chewed after meals or 1 to 2 cups of light cardamom tea a day. Avoid essential oil and large amounts of powder, and run any concentrated supplement past your practitioner. Our sources give no separate guidance for nursing, so keep to culinary amounts.

Children

Our sources do not give a children's dose. Cardamom as a normal food flavouring is part of many family kitchens; for anything beyond that, ask a qualified practitioner.

Elderly

Cardamom's gentle, cooling action on digestion makes it a reasonable everyday spice for older adults with weak digestion or post-meal gas. If you take heart medication, keep to food amounts and check with your doctor before using concentrated supplements.

Athletes

Our sources record no specific use for athletic performance. Cardamom's role here is simply digestive comfort, for example after a large recovery meal.