Head processing suitability in ‘Madrigal’ and ‘Brindisino’ artichoke cultivar

In Apulia region (Southern Italy) the early artichoke cultivar ‘Brindisino’ is widely cultivated; its fall production (early yield) is destined to fresh market, while the spring secondary production is used by the processing industry. Recently a new “seed”-propagated cultivar (‘Madrigal’) has been proposed mainly for processing industry. The aim of the study was to compare head suitability for processing of ‘Madrigal’ (high-yielding and late) with the standard cultivar ‘Brindisino’. Head samples, uniform in size and weight, at optimal stage for processing, were selected during spring period and were processed by eliminating the stem, by cutting the top part for the 60% or the 70% of their total height, and by eliminating the outermost and the hardest bracts (15-20). Starting from the subsequent bract, every single bract was subjected to the measure of cutting force with a penetrometer, until the optimal degree of tenderness, set to 35 Newton (N). Analyses were also performed for the determination of total phenols content in the inner and outer bracts. The heads weighed on average 126 g. ‘Brindisino’ showed a higher total number of bracts than ‘Madrigal’ (82 vs 75). In ‘Brindisino’ there is a noticeable difference in N values as function of cut height, in ‘Madrigal’ the contrary is true, especially in the outer bracts. With 70%-height cut the first useful internal bract (cutting resistance less than 35 N) was about the 36st for both cultivars; with the tallest cut the first useful bract was the 24th and 28th in ‘Brindisino’ and ‘Madrigal’, respectively. ‘Madrigal' waste was lower than ‘Brindisino’ and the incidence of head processed weight on the total raw weight was 5% higher in ‘Madrigal’. The phenol content was lower in ‘Madrigal’ compared to ‘Brindisino’ heads by 70% and 39% in outer and inner bracts, respectively.