Artichoke Capsules

Recommended intake: Take 1 capsule twice daily, unchewed, with sufficient water with a meal.

Important notes: Food supplements are not a substitute for a balanced and varied diet and lifestyle. The stated recommended daily intake must not be exceeded. Keep out of reach of small children.

Allergens: According to the raw material specification, it contains no allergens requiring declaration in accordance with Annex II of Regulation (EU) No. 1169/2011.

Storage: Store in a cool, dry place, do not freeze, and protect from direct sunlight.

The Artichoke Effect

If you drink a sip of tap water after eating an artichoke, you often experience something strange: the water tastes sweet. The effect is well documented and is due to bitter compounds in the plant, including cynarin.

The explanation lies in the taste receptors. The bitter compounds temporarily block the sweet receptors; when the tongue is then rinsed with water, they become free again, and this switching is perceived as sweetness. Not everyone experiences it equally strongly, because, as with other matters of taste, receptor variants differ from person to person. In the kitchen, artichokes are therefore considered a more difficult wine pairing.

Artichoke and cardoon are one type

Botanically, these are two cultivated forms of the same plant, Cynara cardunculus. Over the centuries, artichokes have been bred for their fleshy flower buds, while cardoons have been bred for thick leaf stalks that are prepared like blanched celery.

A third use is little known: in Portugal and Spain, the dried stigmas of the cardoon have long been used as a plant-based rennet to thicken sheep's milk. Some of the best-known cheeses on the Iberian Peninsula are therefore made entirely without animal rennet.

What the Cynarin figure means

Chemically, cynarin is a derivative of caffeic acid, more precisely a dicaffeoylquinic acid. In the fresh plant, however, simple chlorogenic acid predominates; a significant share of cynarin is only formed during drying and extraction.

The standardization value therefore describes not only the plant, but also the process. That is not a flaw, but the reason the figure is meaningful at all: it describes the finished extract, as it is in the capsule, not the leaf at the edge of the field.

A byproduct of vegetable cultivation

The leaves are produced where artichokes are grown as a vegetable, mainly in Italy, Spain, and France. After the buds are cut, the plant remains standing with its large, deeply cut leaves.

With vegetables, breeding has focused on mildness for decades, because too much bitterness makes them harder to sell. For a leaf extract, the exact opposite is needed. Variety, harvest time, and rapid drying therefore determine whether the leaf becomes a usable raw material or just green biomass.