Polyphenolic content in different species of chicory

Chicory is a typical Mediterranean herbaceous plant which belongs to the family of Asteraceae. It is indigenous to Europe, west Asia, Egypt north America and Italy [1]. Chicory leaves are traditionally used as food-product, diffused as a pot herb or salad plant, or its roots may be roasted and used as an additive in coffee manufacturing. Some varieties of these are also employed as medicinal plant for the preparation of bitter decoctions or infusions. The aim of this work was to investigate the quali-quantitative content of polyphenols in many commercial samples of the two species of chicory, Cichorium intybus L. and Cichorium endivia L., purchased in different market of Florence in the period from December to February. In particular in this work both green (cv “catalogna”) and red (cv rossa di Chioggia and di Treviso) varieties, for the species Cichorium intybus L., and witloof one (cv belgian endivia), for Cichorium endivia L., have been investigated. To our knowledge only a few earlier papers are reported in literature focused on the phytochemical investigation of Chicorium intybus L and Cichorium endivia L. [2],[3],[4],[5]. The aerial parts of all the samples were considered and different extraction procedures were compared in order to obtain enriched polyphenolic extracts. In the case of green coultivars, used as pot herb or salad plants, two different extractions were applied: decoction and hydroalcoholic extraction. For the other varieties, mainly used as salad plants, only a hydroalcoholic extraction procedure was considered. HPLC-DAD and HPLC-MS analysis were applied for the identification and quantification of the poliphenolic compounds. The characterised molecules mainly belong to four chemical groups: cinnamoyl tartaric esters of which cichoric acid is the main component, flavonol glycosides, quinic esters and anthocyanins.