Morphological characterization, biomass and pharmaceutical compounds in Italian globe artichoke genotypes

Globe artichoke [Cynara cardunculus var. scolymus (L.) Fiori] is a perennial herbaceous plant cultivated principally in the Mediterranean basin for its immature inflorescences (heads). Among the other possible uses of this species, biomass production may be considered. In this work, 17 Italian globe artichoke genotypes have been studied for two years in the field in order to evaluate their biomass production for pharmaceutical active compound extraction and to select the genotypes more suitable for this purpose. Biomass has been characterized agro-morphologically, using five of the UPOV (International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants) descriptors (i.e. plant height, number of lateral shoots, floral stem diameter, first fully developed leaf length and leaf lobe number) along with other six traits explaining biomass production (i.e. lateral shoot number, first fully developed leaf width, main floral stem leaf number, dry leaf number, plant diameter and plant dry weight), and biochemically to determine by HPLC analysis the phenolic compound content. Genotypes were significantly different for many of the morphological and biochemical traits evaluated. The results indicated that globe artichoke dry biomass yield of some Italian spring genotypes is worth considering (9.7 t ha−1, as average value of all genotypes evaluated in the two growing seasons). Chlorogenic acid (ranging from 0.22 g kg−1 DM to 27.85 g kg−1 DM) and 1,5-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid (ranging from 0.42 g kg−1 DM to 2.10 g kg−1 DM) were the main phenolic compound detected using HPLC analysis. Two genotypes were selected for high biomass and phenolic compound production. This may open new horizons to the industrial use of the crop, which could represent a potential for the increase of the farmers' income.