Seasonal variation in bioactive properties and phenolic composition of cardoon (Cynara cardunculus var. altilis) bracts

Chemical Composition of Cynara cardunculus L. var. altilis Bracts Cultivated in Central Greece: The Impact of Harvesting Time

“…Due to the fact that tocopherols are antioxidant molecules, they are susceptible to oxidation reactions; thus, they can be strongly influenced by the various environmental conditions to which the plant is subjected throughout its growth cycle [30]. This fact could justify the variations in the content of tocopherols in bracts, as well as the fact that in our previous study [39], phenolic compounds content showed a decrease with increasing maturity, explained by the lignification of bracts tissues [12]. Considering the protective role of tocopherols and polyphenols in the overall antioxidant mechanism of the plant, the observed increase of tocopherols at late maturity could compensate the decreased content of polyphenols and provide defense against abiotic stress.…”

Chemical composition and biological activity of cardoon (Cynara cardunculus L. var. altilis) seeds harvested at different maturity stages

“…In particular, four samples were analysed, corresponding to four different harvesting dates and principal growth stages (Table 1): S1 corresponds to PGS 6/7 (harvest: 12 June 2018), S2 corresponds to PGS 7/8 (harvest: 4 July 2018), S3 corresponds to PGS 7/8 (harvest: 18 July 2018), and S4 corresponds to PGS 8 (harvest: 9 August 2018). The plant material was prepared and stored according to the procedure previously described in our previous work (Mandim et al, 2021). The samples were freeze-dried (Sublimator model EKS, Christian Zirbus Co., Germany), powdered with a domestic grinder, and sieved (0.85-1 mm sieve size) to obtain a fine powder.…”

“…The concentrations of extracts were incubated with the tested cell lines (190 µL, 10,000 cells/mL) and the final concentrations tested were 6.25 -400 µg/ mL. The cytotoxic potential was evaluated using the sulforhodamine B assay (Mandim et al, 2021) using four human tumour cell lines: cervical carcinoma (HeLa), hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2), breast carcinoma (MCF-7), and non-small cell lung cancer (NCI-H460) (Leibniz-Institute DSMZ -German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH). A non-tumour porcine liver primary culture (PLP2) was also used for the evaluation of the hepatotoxic potential.…”

“…For the evaluation of the antimicrobial potential, the procedure previously described by Mandim et al (2021)…”

“…Moreover, there are several studies that demonstrated through analytical methodologies the biological potential of this species, e.g. antioxidant (Petropoulos, Pereira, Tzortzakis et al, 2018;Petropoulos, Pereira, Ntatsi et al, 2018), antibacterial Scavo et al, 2019), antifungal (Petropoulos et al, 2019;Scavo et al, 2019), anti-tumour (do Carmo, Pressete, Marques, Granato, & Azevedo, 2018, and anti-inflammatory properties (Kammoun et al, 2010;Mandim et al, 2021). Cardoon seeds are mostly explored for edible oil extraction (Mirpoor, Giosafatto, & Porta, 2021).…”