Flavonoids content of Cynara cardunculus L. wild and cultivated germplasm accessions

Cynara cardunculus, besides common use, is interesting for the recovery of biologically active compounds, since it is rich in caffeoylquinic acids, luteolin and apigenin derivatives, which have several important effects on human health, by reducing the risk of some chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Among these compounds, apigenin is not widely distributed in the plant kingdom, being reported only in celery, parsley and some herbs, and, therefore, C. cardunculus represents an important natural source of this compound. Considering that the qualitative and quantitative polyphenol profile is affected by different factors, including genotype, and the agricultural and industrial waste is ~80 and ~60% of the whole plant and head, respectively, the aim of this work was to characterize the flavonoids profile in leaves, floral stem and bracts of the C. cardunculus botanical varieties (globe artichoke, cultivated and wild cardoon) by HPLC analysis. Our data showed that apigenin and apigenin derivatives are the predominant compounds in cultivated and wild cardoon amongst the flavonoids here identified. Globe artichoke waste matter was rich in luteolin derivatives in all parts (outer bracts, floral stem and leaves) of plant considered (on average, 21 g per t of fresh biomass). These results underline that the artichoke plays an important role for human nutrition and is a natural rich dietary source of these compounds, as well as all the considered waste material could have an added economic value if exploited for the extraction of these compounds.