Globe artichoke (Cynara scolymus L.) is a perennial rosette plant grown throughout the world for its large, fleshy heads [1-3]. Most of its culture (about 90%) is concentrated in the countries around the Mediterranean Basin mainly in Italy (50 000 ha), Spain (17000 ha) and France (10 000 ha) [4]. Egypt has the potential to develop an excellent export industry in artichoke. The production areas ...

With over 20,000 species, Asteraceae is the second largest plant family. High-throughput sequencing of nuclear and chloroplast genomes has allowed for a better understanding of the evolutionary relationships within large plant families. Here, the globe artichoke chloroplast (cp) genome was obtained by a combination of whole-genome and BAC clone high-throughput sequencing. The artichoke cp genom...

Plant secondary metabolites are highly evolved compounds performing different functions, and have been widely exploited from food to medicine. A constant supply of phenols, a class of secondary metabolites, provides preventive and defensive mechanisms to reduce the risk of chronic diseases in human beings; among them monoand di-caffeoylquinic acids (monoCQAs, diCQAs) have attracted a growing ac...

Cynara scolymus L., known as globe artichoke, is a medicinal plant widely used in food supplements (PFS) and herbal infusions due to its beneficial health properties. The high demand for artichoke-containing products can lead adulteration practices. In this work, real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) system coupled high-resolution melting (HRM) analysis was proposed differentiate C. from ot...

Remarkably, within the Asteraceae, a species-specific fructan pattern can be observed. Some species such as artichoke (Cynara scolymus) and globe thistle (Echinops ritro) store fructans with a considerably higher degree of polymerization than the one observed in chicory (Cichorium intybus) and Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus). Fructan:fructan 1-fructosyltransferase (1-FFT) is the enzy...