Artichoke

Leaf

Digestive, Hepatoprotective, Hypolipidemic. Antioxidant

Turkey

Pictorial images of artichoke on temple walls and tombs of pharaohs demonstrate its use and importance in ancient Egypt. Greek medical botanist Pedanius Dioscorides (ca. 40–ca. 90 CE), in his De Materia Medica, described the use of the root as a deodorant and also to benefit stomach, liver, bladder, and kidney health. The genus name Cynara comes from the Greek Κυνάρα, meaning “artichoke.” A 2004 ethnopharmacognostic survey on remedies used in central Lucania in southern Italy reported that aerial parts of wild C. cardunculus are decocted together with aerial parts of dog figwort (Scrophularia canina, Scrophulariaceae) and creeping cinquefoil (Potentilla reptans, Rosaceae) as an anti-rheumatic preparation and applied as a compress. In a 2000 ethnobotanical survey of medicinal plants grown in home gardens in Catalonia, Spain, 14% of respondents reported using C. cardunculus (plant part and mode of administration not reported) as an abortive, and 5% reported using C. scolymus as a hepatoprotective. Published in 2012, another ethnobotanical survey in Salamanca province, Spain, that looked at remedies used against witches and the “evil eye,” described traditional cheese-making by curdling milk with artichoke flowers and lamb rennet. However, if the milk did not set properly, this was attributed to having made contact with the evil eye of a witch in the village. In 1985, a monograph for “Flos Cynarae scolymus” entered volume one of the first edition of Pharmacopée Africaine, including tests for identification, composition, purity, and strength, and indicated its use for treating hepatic and renal dysfunctions, as a diuretic, and for arteriosclerosis. The German Commission E published a positive therapeutic monograph for “Cynarae folium” (Artischockenblätter) in 1988 (revised in 1990), in the form of cut, dried leaf, fresh-pressed plant juice, or other galenical preparations, indicated for use as a choleretic (promoting bile secretion) drug for dyspeptic problems