Solomon Eyob* and Maigull Appelgren, Jens Rohloff, Admasu Tsegaye and Gezahegn Messele
Abstract: The essential oils of the leaves, rhizomes, pods and seeds of Aframomum corrorima cultivated in the highlands of
southern Ethiopia were obtained by hydrodistillation. The average moisture contents were 80.53% in leaves, 90.30%
in rhizomes, 88.00% in pods and 14.19% in seeds when analyzed from fresh samples. The essential oils yield of leaves,
rhizomes, pods and seeds were 0.46%, 0.69%, 0.83% and 4.30 % on a w/w dry basis, respectively. The pod and seed
oil was analyzed by GC and GC/MS. Forty-two and 40 compounds from pods and seeds consisting of 95% and 99% of
the total components were identified from the oils obtained. The major chemical constituents in pod oil were found
to be g-terpinene (27.1 %), b-pinene (15.4 %), a-phellandrene (8.5 %), 1,8-cineole (6.7 %) and p-cymene (6.4 %),
while seed oil was predominated by 1,8-cineole (39.3 %) being followed by sabinene (10.4 %) and geraniol (6.8 %).
Korarima (<i>Aframomum corrorima</i> (Braun) P.C.M. Jansen) or so-called Ethiopian cardamom is a spice and medicinal crop of the family Zingiberaceae native to Ethiopia. According to Sebsebe (1), korarima oil has a similar chemical composition to that of the Indian cardamom (<i>Elettaria cardamomum</i>), except for its reduced content of a-terpinyl acetate, which is the major component in the latter. Previously, Ethiopia was well-known for its considerable exports of korarima capsules to the world market, mainly as a substitute for the Indian cardamom (2). However, the supply has greatly fluctuated during the past few decades, and the total annual korarima export has decreased to less than 60 metric tonnes in the years 1994-1998, fetching only some 2.1 million USD (3). This condition is mainly due to reduction of production as a result of destruction of the natural habitat of the plant. Compared to cardamom, korarima has a relatively wider adaptation and higher yield (ca 5.5-fold). Besides the large domestic consumption of korarima, Ethiopia exported it to Sweden, Finland, Sudan, India, Egypt and Saudi Arabia (4). Ethiopian cardamon had notably penetrated the Scandinavian market and was priced at 9 USD per kilogram in early 1978 as a substitute for Indian cardamom (2).
