Theophrastus and the name of Artichoke.

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Artichoke has a long history.

Artichoke leaf Extract INCI Name Cynara Scolymus Extract CAS 84012-14-6 EINECS ELINCS No 281-659-3 Artichoke thistle extract photo picture image Used as a food and a medical remedy as early as the 4th century B.C., the artichoke plant has a long history. At the time, a pupil of Aristotle named Theophrastus was one of the first to describe the plant in detail. Enjoyed as a delicacy, an appetizer and digestive aid by the aristocracy of the Roman Empire, it later seems to have fallen into oblivion until the 16th century, when medicinal use of the artichoke for liver problems and jaundice was recorded. In 1850 a French physician successfully used extract of artichoke leaves in the treatment of a boy who had been sick with jaundice for a month and had made no improvement from the drugs used at that time. This accomplishment inspired researchers to find out more about the effects of this extract, and their research resulted in the knowledge we have today about the constituents of the extract and its mechanisms of action.

 The artichoke is one of the oldest cultivated plants.1 It was first grown in Ethiopia and then made its way to southern Europe via Egypt. Its image is found on ancient Egyptian tablets and sacrificial altars. The ancient Greeks and Romans considered it a valuable digestive aid and reserved what was then a rare plant for consumption in elite circles. In sixteenth-century Europe, the artichoke was also considered a "noble" vegetable meant for consumption by the royal and the rich.

 In traditional European medicine, the leaves of the artichoke (not the flower buds, which are the parts commonly cooked and eaten as a vegetable) were used as a diuretic to stimulate the kidneys and as a "choleretic" to stimulate the flow of bile from the liver and gallbladder. (Bile is a yellowish-brown fluid manufactured in the liver and stored in the gall- bladder; it consists of numerous substances, including several that play a significant role in digestion.)

 In the first half of the twentieth century, French scientists began modern research into these traditional medicinal uses of the artichoke plant.1 Their work suggested that the plant does indeed stimulate the kidney and gallbladder. Mid-century, Italian scientists isolated a compound from artichoke leaf called cynarin, which appeared to duplicate many of the effects of whole artichoke. Synthetic cynarin preparations were used as a drug to stimulate the liver and gallbladder and to treat elevated cholesterol from the 1950s to the 1980s; competition from newer pharmaceuticals has since eclipsed the use of cynarin.

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citations1.Theophrastus and the name of Artichoke.

last edit date:1st,July.2009.