Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum): Oil Composition, ISO 4733

Key facts

• In a 2023 study of commercial batches from Guatemala, the batch average was 43.9 for α-terpinyl acetate and 30.5 for 1,8-cineole, in relative percentage abundance.
• In a 2022 study, hydrodistillation alone of seeds from Chiapas, Mexico, gave a yield of 2.52 g of oil per 100 g of seed (dry basis).
• The same authors write that the percentage of oil extracted from DIC-treated seeds was “overall” higher than from untreated seeds.
• A 2019 copy of the ISO catalogue page gives ISO 4733:2004 the status “Published” and states that it “was last reviewed and confirmed in 2018”.

The text of the 2023 study describes the oils of its Table 1 as characterised by a preponderance of oxygenated compounds. In the 2022 study, oil was obtained from ground seeds by six hours of hydrodistillation in a Clevenger-type apparatus, without or after a DIC treatment. The ISO 4733:2004 catalogue page names ISO 4733:1981 as its previous standard (“Previously”), an entry that a 2026 copy of the ISO listing marks “[Withdrawn]”.

What plant and which plant parts do the studies cover?

According to the World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP, Kew), in an extract read on 3 November 2026, Elettaria cardamomum (L.) Maton has rank “Species” and status “Accepted”, in the family Zingiberaceae (identifier 243056).

Pavarino et al. (2023) studied six batches of commercial “Elettaria cardamomum (L.) Maton” essential oil, obtained by steam distillation from fruits (“dried fruits”) of botanically authenticated plants from Guatemala.

In Teresa-Martínez et al. (2022), the seeds studied (“Cardamom seeds”) came from “finca Argovia” in Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico. The article’s title names the species Elettaria cardamomum, without a taxon author.

What is cardamom oil made of?

In Pavarino et al. (2023), the legend of Table 1 expresses the chemical composition as relative percentage abundance, for the average of the batches analysed and for the oil obtained by hydrodistillation. It gives the analytical relative standard deviation as “(RSD%) <3%”; “tr” means trace and “n.d.” means not detected. According to section 2.1, the normalised relative percentage abundances of all detected compounds were determined and used to compare the oil compositions.

What does the batch average contain?

Values are those of the column “Batches (Average ± σ)” of Table 1, in relative percentage abundance; compound names, “tr” and “n.d.” are written as the table writes them.

What does the hydrodistilled oil contain?

Values are those of the column “Hydrodist OE” of Table 1, for one hydrodistilled oil, in relative percentage abundance; they are given as the table writes them, without comparison with the batch average.

What does the text of the study say about the main compounds?

Referring to Table 1, the text of section 2.1 describes the oils of Table 1 as characterised by a preponderance of oxygenated compounds. It names 1,8-cineole and “terpinyl acetate” as “the most abundant”, with “more than 30% and 40%, respectively”. The text writes “terpinyl acetate” where Table 1 writes “α-terpinyl acetate”.

How were the compounds measured?

In Pavarino et al. (2023), the oil solutions were prepared in cyclohexane at 5.0 mg/mL, with 5 µL of a nonane solution in cyclohexane (20 mg/mL) as internal standard. They were analysed on an Agilent 6890 gas chromatograph coupled to an Agilent 5975 MSD. GC conditions were an injector at 250 °C, split injection at a 1/20 ratio and helium as carrier gas, at a constant flow rate of 1 mL/min. The column was a MEGA5 (95% polydimethylsiloxane, 5% phenyl), 30 m × 0.25 µm and 0.25 mm, and the temperature program 50 °C (1 min)//3 °C/min//250 °C//250 °C (5 min).

In the same study, the mass spectrometer operated in EI mode (70 eV), with a scan range of 35 to 350 amu and a dwell time of 34 ms. The ion source was at 250 °C, the quadrupole at 150 °C and the transfer line at 270 °C. Compounds were identified by comparing their linear retention indices, calculated with a C9–C25 hydrocarbon mixture, and their mass spectra with those of authentic samples and/or commercial mass spectral libraries.

How is cardamom oil obtained, and with what yield?

How was the hydrodistilled fruit oil obtained?

In Pavarino et al. (2023), a sample of whole cardamom fruits (“opened capsules and seeds”), bought from a local herbal specialty shop and of Guatemalan origin, was hydrodistilled for 4 h in a Clevenger apparatus. Section 3.1 gives 100 g of dried fruits of the same geographical origin for this 4 h hydrodistillation in a Clevenger apparatus. The oil was collected and stored in the dark at +4 °C until use.

How were the seeds pretreated and distilled?

In Teresa-Martínez et al. (2022), 50 g of ground seeds (“grounded cardamom”) were mixed with 600 mL of distilled water in a Clevenger-type apparatus and distilled for six hours. The essential oil was dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate. The yield was calculated as grams of oil per 100 g of seed (dry basis).

In the same study, for the DIC treatment, 100 g of seeds were placed in the reactor under a vacuum of 30 mbar. Saturated steam was injected until the selected study temperature was reached (given as “from 0.17 up to 0.7 MPa”), and held for 15 to 45 s. The seeds then underwent an instant controlled pressure drop (ΔP/Δt above 0.5 MPa per second) towards vacuum (30 mbar), followed by a release to atmospheric pressure. They were stored at −80 °C until analysis.

The trials followed a response surface methodology with a central composite design of 12 experiments, carried out with four centre points. The factors were saturated steam temperature (°C) and thermal processing time (s). The vertical line of the Pareto chart marks the statistically significant effects at the 95% confidence level.

Seed moisture content was determined by a dynamic method in a laboratory air dryer, with two grams of seed held at 105 °C for 24 h. The text gives an average moisture content of 5.1% (dry basis) for the control seeds, and of 10.5 to 11.3% (dry basis) for the DIC-treated seeds.

What yields do the trials report?

Each row is one line of Table 1 of the 2022 study, as the table writes it, except the control’s moisture, taken from the text; yields are in grams of oil per 100 g of seed (dry basis).

DIC 3 and DIC 9 were both run at 140 °C for 30 s; they gave 3.60 and 4.22, and each value remains that of its own trial.

According to the authors, the Pareto chart showed that temperature was the factor affecting the yield, with a negative effect: the higher the DIC treatment temperature, the lower the yield. From the response surface, they write that the yield “could” be enhanced between 110 and 140 °C with a treatment time of 10 to 20 s. Comparing hydrodistillation alone with DIC-HD, they write that the percentage of oil extracted from treated samples was “overall” higher than from untreated samples. They describe the HD and DIC-HD oils as having a “clear appearance” and a “pleasant aroma”.

Which ISO standard covers cardamom oil?

ISO 4733:2004 bears the title “Oil of cardamom [Elettaria cardamomum (L.) Maton]” on its catalogue page (copy of 21 August 2019) and in the ICS 71.100.60 listing (copy of 19 March 2026), where it is at stage 90.93. The abstract on the 2019 copy of the catalogue page reads: “ISO 4733:2004 specifies certain characteristics of the oil of cardamom, Elletaria cardamomum (L.) Maton., in order to facilitate assessment of its quality.” The characteristics and values of the standard are not reproduced here.

Each row below is an entry of the ISO 4733:2004 catalogue page, read in a web archive copy of 21 August 2019.

In the ICS 71.100.60 listing (web archive copy of 19 March 2026), the entry ISO 4733:1981 carries the mention “[Withdrawn]”, the title “Oil of cardamom”, stage 95.99 and committee ISO/TC 54.

See also: Zingiber officinale, Piper nigrum, Syzygium aromaticum bud oil, extraction yield calculator.

References

• International Organization for Standardization (ISO), online catalogue, ICS 71.100.60 « Essential oils », archived copy of 19/03/2026 (Internet Archive) — https://web.archive.org/web/20260319152944id_/https://www.iso.org/ics/71.100.60/x/
• International Organization for Standardization (ISO), catalogue record « ISO 4733:2004 — Oil of cardamom [Elettaria cardamomum (L.) Maton] », edition 2, 2004-07, archived copy of 21/08/2019 (Internet Archive) — https://web.archive.org/web/20190821091743id_/https://www.iso.org/standard/36803.html
• Govaerts R. (ed.), World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — https://sftp.kew.org/pub/data-repositories/WCVP/wcvp.zip
• Pavarino M., Marengo A., Cagliero C., Bicchi C., Rubiolo P., Sgorbini B., « Elettaria cardamomum (L.) Maton Essential Oil: An Interesting Source of Bioactive Specialized Metabolites as Inhibitors of Acetylcholinesterase and Butyrylcholinesterase », Plants 2023;12(19):3463, doi:10.3390/plants12193463 — https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/efetch.fcgi?db=pmc&id=10575282
• Teresa-Martínez G.D., Cardador-Martínez A., Téllez-Pérez C., Allaf K., Jiménez-Martínez C., Alonzo-Macías M., « Effect of the Instant Controlled Pressure Drop Technology in Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum) Essential Oil Extraction and Antioxidant Activity », Molecules 2022;27(11):3433, doi:10.3390/molecules27113433 — https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/efetch.fcgi?db=pmc&id=9182323