Commonly grown garden plant which sometimes naturalizes if conditions
support its growth. The petals are edible. Most of the time the flowers
produced by this plant are blue.
This plant grows to a height of one to three feet. Flowers form from May
through August. Quercetin and apigenin are produced in the flower head and
leaves of this plant. This plant is native to Western Asia and Europe, but
has naturalized widely all around the planet.
Anthocyanins and Other Flavonoids as Flower Pigments from Eleven
Centaurea Species
Anthocyanins and other flavonoids were isolated from the flowers of eleven Centaurea
species. The genus Centaurea, family Asteraceae, consists of ca. 500
species, and is distributed in Europe, tropical Africa, North America
and Australia. These compounds included quercetin and apigenin.
Article at sagepub.com
Cornflower at WikiPedia
Centaurea cyanus contains a wide range of pharmacologically active compounds,
such as flavonoids, anthocyanins and aromatic acids. Furthermore, extracts of
the flower head and vegetative parts of the plant were shown to have
gastroprotective effects due to their content of quercetin, apigenin
and caffeic acid derivates.