Ela

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Chhoti elaichi

What the texts say Ela does

• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Hridya — good for the heart
• Mutrala — diuretic
• Chhardinigrahana — relieves vomiting (anti-emetic)
• Mukhashodhana — cleans the mouth

What the evidence says. Traditional use is extensive and long recorded. Modern clinical evidence is limited.

Side effects and limits

• Digestive upset in quantity

Avoid or ask first: Gallstones — caution is traditionally advised.

A traditional classification, not a recommendation. The full safety record is below.

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

Sukshma Ela is the drug; Brihat Ela (Amomum subulatum) is a different plant.

Reported from Sharangadhara Samhita and the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India. Laisha states what the texts prescribe; it does not recommend. No quantity here is adjusted for a particular person — not for agni, koshtha, bala, age, pregnancy, kidney or liver function, or anything already being taken.

Katu with madhura, and — unusually among the aromatics — sheeta virya. That is the detail that separates it from lavanga and twak in an examination.

These are the actions the classical texts record. They are statements about what the tradition holds, and this library does not restate them as findings about a human body.

Sukshmaila, the small ela, exists to distinguish it from Brihat Ela and is the paryaya a student should reach for when precision matters.

Rasa, guna, virya, vipaka and karma are recorded as the classical texts give them, with the text and section named so a student can open the book and check. Where an exact chapter and verse could not be confirmed, this library names the section rather than inventing a number.

Brihat Ela is cheaper and is substituted for Sukshma Ela, and because the texts assign them different properties this is a substitution that changes the formulation and not only the price. Spent capsules — those whose oil has been distilled off — are dried and sold as whole cardamom, and they look right and smell of almost nothing.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. This is Sukshma Ela, the small cardamom. Brihat Ela, the large one, is Amomum subulatum, a different genus, and the texts treat them as two dravya with different properties.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Elettaria is from the Malayalam elettari. Cardamomum is kardamon + amomon, two old Greek spice names welded together.

Ela is described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu among the aromatics and is recorded as hridya and as acting on nausea. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the seed does in a body.

Constituents. The seed carries an essential oil rich in alpha-terpinyl acetate and cineole. The oil is volatile, which is the chemical reason behind the tradition's insistence on keeping the capsule whole.

Grown as a crop: how to grow cardamom, from sowing to harvest, in Laisha's grow guides.

• This is a study and clinical reference for practitioners and students. The matra and anupana it records are what the classical texts and the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India PRESCRIBE — Laisha reports them, it does not recommend them. They are not a prescription for any particular person, and they are not adjusted for your age, agni, koshtha, bala, pregnancy, kidney or liver function, or anything else you are already taking. Only a qualified practitioner who has examined you can do that.
• Traditional classification is recorded as what the classical texts say, with the text and the place in it named so it can be checked. It is not restated as a finding about a human body.
• Nothing here replaces a qualified Ayurvedic practitioner or a doctor.