Low storage temperatures may therefore have prevented senescence phenomena consequent to cutting, by slowing down the product response to wounding. In addition since PPO from several plant sources exhibits maximum activity in the temperature range of 20–35 ◦C (Vamos-Vigyazo, 1981), a direct effect of the low temperature of storage before cutting on the inhibition of the activity of PPO enzyme may be hypothesized (Tomás-Barberán and Espín, 2001; Xu, 2005). As for phenol content, no difference were found in this study for ‘Catanese’ variety, while a higher content wasdetected in ‘Violetto Foggiano’ stored at 5 ◦C. The increase at this temperature is in accord with that reported by Gil-Izquierdo et al. (2001) who found for artichoke ‘Blanca de Tudela’ a higher content when stored at 5 ◦C and 7 ◦C compared with the content at harvest and other storage temperatures (0, 2, and 10 ◦C). They also reported that chlorogenic acid did not increase in samples stored at 10 ◦C with respect to the content at harvest, and attributed the low