A study on the retention of fresh flavour of cardamom oil by cold grinding

Abstract

Grinding is a very important step in processing of cardamom as it involved the additional problem of volatility and loss of aroma giving essential oil present in it, which is the sole criterion of quality of this spice. The aroma compounds present in whole dried cardamom were hydrodistilled by ordinary grinding method and after cold grinding with ice in order to collect the essential oil. Low temperature grinding is the practical way to achieve fine grinding without loss of flavour principles. The process of cold grinding enhances the volatile oil content and the quality of the oil in terms of its aroma constituents. A comparative study of the control sample (ambient condition, 30 degree C, ground) with that of improved grinding technique was performed quantitatively and qualitatively by GC-MS analysis. By this method of cold grinding (2-5 degree C) and extraction of volatile oil, the quality profile of the oil is found to be enhanced in terms of its number of constituents as well as its percentage. The results also showed that the oil content has increased by 1% and the study of the chemical components established that the major components are oxygenated terpenoids, which contribute the fresh aroma. The percentage of essential oil and the chemical composition of the cold ground sample exhibited the superiority of the product. Thus this technique may be used in the flavor industry for improving the quality of the product quantitatively as well as qualitatively.