As concerns the antioxidant content of the extracts, the HPLC analysis indicated that cardamom oil contains low level of fatsoluble tocopherols, the components of vitamin E. The major component of the vitamin found in the seeds and extracts was tocopherol (the biologically active analogue), while and analogues occur as minor constituents. The value of 122.5 g/g extract was recorded as the highest content of tocopherol in oleoresin recovered with SF-CO2 at 308K and 30MPa. Performance of extraction with sub-critical CO2 resulted in oil with tocopherol content of 68–78g/g. The use of ethanol as modifier brought no significant increase in the content of vitamin E. The content of-tocopherol in propane-extracted oleoresinswas 118 and 131 g/g when the extraction was performed at 2.5 and 5MPa, respectively indicating the high solubility of tocopherols
in propane under sub-critical conditions. These values are not
significantly different from the maximum values obtained with
SF-CO2 and soxhlet extraction with hexane. The low concentration
of tocopherols in the seeds and oils of cardamom may
stand behind the low storage stability of volatile compounds of
such products as stated by Gopalakrishnan [19].