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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Fort Pierce, Florida » U.S. Horticultural Research Laboratory » Citrus and Other Subtropical Products Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #351357
Research Project: Integrated Strategies for Managing Pests and Nutrients in Vegetable and Ornamental Production Systems

Location: Citrus and Other Subtropical Products Research

Title: Impact on health of artichoke and cardoon bioactive compounds: content, bioaccessibility, bioavailability, and bioactivity

Author
item D'ANTUONO, ISABELLA - National Research Council - Italy
item DI GIOIA, FRANCESCO - University Of Florida
item LINSALATA, VITO - National Research Council - Italy
item Rosskopf, Erin
item CARDINALI, ANGELA - National Research Council - Italy

Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/2/2018
Publication Date: 11/27/2018
Citation: D'Antuono, I., Di Gioia, F., Linsalata, V., Rosskopf, E.N., Cardinali, A. 2018. Impact on health of artichoke and cardoon bioactive compounds: content, bioaccessibility, bioavailability, and bioactivity. Book Chapter. Bentham Science Publishers, Sharjah, UAE, pp 373-443.

Interpretive Summary: Artichoke and cardoon are vegetables that are a significant portion of the Mediterranean diet. This is an emerging crop in the United States and one that has been recently proposed as a potential crop for Florida vegetable producers. There is a great deal of interest in the compounds produced by these crops that are bioactive and have proven health benefits. The manner in which artichokes are produced, harvested, and served all have an impact on the quantities of beneficial compounds produced.

Technical Abstract: Artichoke, cultivated cardoon, and their common relative, the wild cardoon are botanical varieties of the species Cynara cardunculus L., a perennial plant native to the Mediterranean Basin and belonging to the Asteraceae family. While commonly used as food, leaf extracts of these plants have been traditionally used as a natural remedy in folk medicine. These plants are in fact a rich source of bioactive compounds such as polyphenols, inulin, and sesquiterpene lactones. Many studies demonstrated that these compounds and their metabolites are responsible for several beneficial properties attributed to the extracts of artichoke and cardoon. As we gain knowledge on the effects and mode of action of these compounds, artichoke and cardoon are considered ‘functional food’ and are increasingly used to extract bioactive compounds and for numerous pharmaceutical applications. In this chapter, after a brief introduction on the origin and the importance of these crops, each class of bioactive compounds is presented summarizing the specific chemical properties, the biosynthesis, and the concentration range in plant tissues. The third section discusses the main factors (plant portion, physiological stage, plant genotype, environment, pre-harvest agronomic practices, post-harvest handling and processing) influencing the concentration of bioactive compounds in artichoke and cardoon. The following section is focused on the physiological fate of the bioactive compounds, reviewing the results of the most recent in vitro and in vivo studies conducted to assess their bioaccessibility, bioavailability, and pharmacokinetics. Finally, in the last section the main health-promoting characteristics attributed to artichoke and cardoon polyphenols are reviewed.