abstract the large cardamom pericarp (husk) yielded 0.18% volatile oil by clevenger hydrodistillation method. this oil was analysed for physical parameters viz. specific gravity (0.9148), refractive index (1.4733) and optical rotation (-7.700). the volatile oil was subjected to gc-ms analysis and 37 compounds were identified, constituting > 98% of the total oil. the major compounds characterized were 1,8-cineole (38.7%), -pinene (13.6%), -terpineol (12.6%), spathulenol (8.3%), 4-terpineol (4.5%), germacrene-d (3.0%), -pinene (2.8%) and -selinene (2.7%). gc and gc-ms data revealed that the 1,8-cineol content was less than 50% when compared with the seed oil. copyright (c) 2004 john wiley & sons, ltd.