Objective To explore the suitable drying methods, laying a foundation for the processing and quality guarantee of the medicinal materials of Amomum tsaoko. Methods Drying the fresh fruits of A. tsaoko by the two-stage processing(The first stage: 40 ℃, 60 ℃ baking individually, or low-intensity microwave drying. The second stage: 25 ℃ baking), then a comparative analysis was performed by investigating the variation of the seed essential oil content, and water loss rate among the different drying methods. Results There were greatly significant differences among the different drying methods in the seed essential oil content (df=5, F=64.072, P=0.000), and greatly significant correlation between them (df=178, R=0.266, P=0.005) by controlling the influence of population. Conclusion In the present study, the baking at 40 ℃ for 5 h and then drying at 25 ℃ could gain the highest content of volatile oil from the seeds than the other processing. The water loss rate after the first-stage processing was an important index of evaluation, which would influence on the medicinal materials quality of A. tsaoko.