The value of artichoke in health care

Artichokes contain large amounts of catechins, an antioxidant that has been shown to prevent tumor formation and treat cancer.

At the workshop “Application of herbs in clinical medical treatment” organized by Tue Tinh Hospital and Lam Dong Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company (Ladophar) on July 19, the potential of products for treatment and support of disease treatment from the Artichoke plant was mentioned by many medical experts.

Delegates attending the Workshop " Application of herbs in clinical medical treatment" .

Artichoke, scientifically known as Cynara scolumus, is a prickly-leafed plant grown by ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans in the Mediterranean region of Southern Europe.

This tree was brought to Vietnam by the French in the early 10th century and first planted in Sa Pa (Laos) and then planted most in Da Lat (Lam Dong).

This European artichoke is suitable for temperate climates so it only grows best in cool, high mountainous areas like Da Lat.

Da Lat has over 100 hectares of land for growing artichokes. A large part of this area is used by Lam Dong Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company (Ladophar) to grow and purchase products.

Ladophar is cooperating with Lac Duong district to plant about 500 hectares of this tree in the form of cooperation in transferring seedlings, planting technology as well as output consumption.

According to Mr. Le Tien Thinh, General Director of Ladophar, the effort to expand the area of ​​​​artichoke cultivation is a reasonable strategy of the enterprise because the demand for raw materials from this plant is increasing. Artichoke is not only an ingredient for Vietnamese specialty tea bags, but is also considered a valuable source of medicinal herbs.

All parts of the artichoke plant, from the stem, roots, flowers, and leaves, have medicinal value, especially the flowers and leaves. Flowers and leaves contain cynarin and silymarin, which help stimulate the bile glands and support the liver in detoxifying the body.

Furthermore, artichokes contain large amounts of catechins, an antioxidant that has been shown to prevent tumor formation and treat cancer.

With such properties, Artichoke has the potential to open up many greater opportunities than simply producing a specialty tea that is still commonly used by Dalat people every day.

Firstly, large quantity of artichoke extract can provide domestic and foreign markets with a valuable health ingredient.

Currently, only artichokes in Da Lat have the standard cynarin content, so Japanese, Korean, and Chinese businesses are also coming to Da Lat to purchase this product from businesses capable of extracting it directly using modern technology.

Currently, many individual households also harvest and process Artichokes manually but do not create finished products of sufficient quality. Developing this as a key product of the province requires large pharmaceutical companies such as Ladophar to own raw material areas that meet international GACP-WHO standards on practice and processing.

International studies have shown the special liver-protective effects of Artichoke . The plant's compounds help eliminate toxins, prevent lipid peroxidation in the cell membranes of liver tissues, significantly prevent oxidative damage to liver cell membranes, and reduce the degree of fatty liver.

Mr. Le Tien Thinh (left) discussed with the leaders of Tue Tinh Hospital about the potential of Artichoke.

Artichoke extracts can prevent toxic effects on the liver and reduce liver enzymes in 84.29% of patients. Artichoke has also been shown to be effective in many common diseases.

Research on diabetic mice showed that artichoke extract significantly reduced blood sugar levels by 42.84% after 28 days of treatment. Animal studies also showed that artichoke increased nitric oxide production, which contributes to reducing atherosclerosis.

Cynarin in artichokes stimulates bile production, which helps digest fats and absorb vitamins from food. Studies have shown that artichoke leaf extract is good for people with irritable bowel syndrome, indigestion or stomach pain.

In particular, many other polyphenol antioxidants found in artichokes may contribute to the prevention and control of prostate cancer, breast cancer, and leukemia.

With such medicinal properties, currently some large pharmaceutical companies are using Artichoke extract to produce functional foods and medicines.

Ladophar Company combines Artichoke with many other medicinal herbs such as Codonopsis pilosula, Phyllanthus urinaria, Polyscias fruticosa, Ganoderma lucidum, Epimedium, Red ginseng, Andrographis paniculata, Polyscias fruticosa, Ginkgo biloba and many vitamins to create the best effect for the process of detoxifying the liver and improving health.

This direction is especially good for health, especially supporting the reduction of liver-related diseases in Vietnamese people, one of the countries that consume the most beer and alcohol in the world today.

The next development direction that the company is taking is to develop artichoke growing areas combined with tourism as a specialty of Da Lat. Tourists can visit the growing areas, artichokes, and directly experience the simple harvesting of herbal tea products.

Dalat tourism has now developed strongly in the direction of visiting flower gardens, rose gardens, vegetable gardens while the door is still open for Artichoke , a typical plant of Dalat and has created a specialty for the region.

The value of Da Lat lies in many historical, natural and cultural aspects, in which the Artichoke has played an important role over the past decades. Developing the growing area and exploiting and processing finished products from this typical crop will contribute to promoting Da Lat tourism, bringing high economic efficiency.

Talking to reporters about the potential of this product in health care and the company's future trends, according to Mr. Thinh, standing on the threshold of integration, to go the long way, developing green, clean, and environmentally friendly products is an inevitable trend.

In particular, to access international markets with strict requirements on product quality, we recognize the need to use high technical standards right from the initial steps of cultivation. Therefore, Lam Dong Pharmaceutical has been actively expanding the GACP organic raw material area, green, clean and environmentally friendly.

To solve the input problem, Ladophar has coordinated with local authorities and specialized agencies in building clean raw material areas, orienting new care methods towards safety and sustainability for farmers.

The company also signed contracts to purchase raw materials with local households. The company provided farmers with seeds, a list of plant protection products used according to the recommendations of professional agencies, and instructed people on how to use them, avoid overusing pesticides, and the time to isolate them from pesticides.

In addition, the company's technical team regularly conducts field inspections of raw material gardens. Before harvesting, we will take samples for testing and only harvest Artichoke raw materials that meet standards and put them into production within 24 hours to ensure the best quality and Cynarin content. If any raw material area has a high content of pesticides, it will be left for further isolation.

By ensuring the quality of input materials and strictly following the production process, Lam Dong Pharmaceutical confidently commits to the quality of its products and has had 2 products out of a total of 42 products achieve the national 5-star OCOP.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/gia-tri-cua-cay-atiso-trong-cham-soc-suc-khoe-d220393.html