This paper reviews the use of plant extracts as vegetable coagulants for cheesemaking. It covers the plants used as sources of coagulants, with a historical overview and particular emphasis on Cynara species. The genus Cynara L., its composition, milk clotting and proteolytic enzymes (cardosins) and their specificity towards peptide linkages are also described. Cheeses produced in the Iberian Peninsula using Cynara L. as coagulant are documented. Cynara L. is still the most used vegetable coagulant in cheesemaking, and also the most investigated. However, much work remains to be done to understand its action during cheese maturation and further characterization.

Cheesemaking with vegetable coagulants—the use of Cynara L. for the production of ovine milk cheeses

Possible alternative utilization of Cynara spp.: I. Biomass, grain yield and chemical composition of grain

The genetic affinities between the cultivated artichoke Cynara cardunculus L. var. scolymus (L.) Flori (= C. scolymus L.) and its wild relatives were tested by means of a crossing programme. The following wild taxa were involved: (i) wild cardoon C. carcundulus L. var. sylvestris (Lamk) Fiori, (ii) C. syriaca Boiss., (iii) C. cornigera Lindley, (iv) C. algarbiensis Cosson, (v) C. baetica (Spreng.) Pau (= C. alba Boiss.), and (vi) C. humilis L. Only the wild cardoon was found to be fully cross-compatible and fully infertile with the crop. In contrast, all other five wild Cynara species turned to be almost fully-or fully-cross-incompatible with the crop, and the few interspecific F1 hybrids recovered were partly or almost fully sterile. These finds establish the wild cardoon as the wild ancestor of the cultivated vegetable.

The wild ancestry of the cultivated artichoke.

The domestication of artichoke and cardoon: from Roman times to the genomic age

Cynara cardunculus L. has been recognised as an energy crop for rainfed lands with Mediterranean climates. For energy purposes, it is grown as a permanent crop and the whole aerial biomass produced over the annual growth cycle is harvested every year. In this work, the potential of C. cardunculus L. as an oil crop is studied in a perennial cultivation system. The degree of variation of seed oil content and fatty acid oil composition is assessed in two experiments designed to study the effect of the factors: plant population, crop year and experiment location. The range of values of seed oil content was greater for the multilocal experiment (20.0–31.6%) than for the experiment on populations (22.0–28.8%), but the effect of the agricultural year was noticed in both experiments. There were significant differences in the 18 populations experiment and a group of 5 populations was identified as rich in seed oil (>26%). Seed presscake was analysed and as a result the use of this material as fertiliser or as animal feed was proposed. Finally, the degree of variation of fatty acid oil composition—studied for the factors population, location and year—turned out to be rather small. Cynara oil profile was characterised in terms of major fatty acids as: 10.7% palmitic, 3.7% stearic, 25.0% oleic and 59.7% linoleic.

Annette Wiklund

Papers

The genus Cynara L. (Asteraceae-Cardueae)