What is an artichoke?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

January 22, 2004

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One truly wonders whether it was bravado or starvation that possessed the first person to eat a cardoon (Cynara cardunculus Linnaeus) and its probable cultigen, the artichoke (Cynara scolymus Linnaeus). These perennial plants are native to northern Africa and southern Europe and are members of the tribe, Carduus, the thistle group of the Asteraceae.

The edible portion of the artichoke is the receptacle of the immature inflorescence and the basal ends of the phyllaries or bracts. The bracts and florets are connected to the receptacle, the fleshy expanded end of the flowering stem.
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The tiny florets are fibrous and are scraped from a cooked artichoke before eating. If the flowerhead is allowed to mature, the florets lengthen and turn purple-blue like their wild cousins the thistles. ("Cynara", Hortus Third, L.H. Bailey Hortorium, Cornell University, 1976)

Cardoon and artichokes have been eaten since the Egyptian and Roman empires. They were not simply used for food, but also as medicinals and to clabber milk. The plants contain proteinases, enzymes that act on proteins. The florets were removed and added to milk to clot the proteins for the first stage of making cheese. ("Cynara, Garden Artichoke", King's American Dispensatory, H.W. Felter and J.U. Lloyd, 1898)

For all the centuries that artichokes have been eaten, gourmets have noticed that following consumption, water and some foods taste sweet. This effect is caused by a unique sweet protein, curculin. Curculin lingers on the taste buds and is reactivated when water or acidic foods touch the tongue. ("Activity and stability of a new sweet protein with taste-modifying action, curculin", H. Yamashita, T. Akabane, and Y. Kurihara, Chemical Senses, April 1995, Oxford Journals Online)

Rolv Hjelmstad has posted a great photograph of an artichoke in full bloom in his gallery of medicinal plants. To view the flower, click on the link:

http://www.rolv.no/bilder/galleri/medplant/cyna_sco.htm

The Cooperative Extension Service, IFAS, University of Florida, has a brief article on artichokes, photographs, and a diagram of the 'bud'. To view the page, click on the link:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/BODY_MV011

Scroll down the page and click on the thumbnails to enlarge the images.

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