Celery activities. Celery contains phenolic acid, which is an antioxidant. Apiin and apigenin can be extracted from celery and parsley. Lunularin is a dihydrostilbenoid found in common celery. The main chemicals responsible for the aroma and taste of celery are butylphthalide and sedanolide. Daniel Zohary and Maria Hopf note that celery leaves and inflorescences were part of the garlands found in the tomb of pharaoh Tutankhamun (died 1323 BC), and celery mericarps dated to the seventh century BC were recovered in the Heraion of Samos. However, they note "since "A. graveolens" grows wild in these areas, it is hard to decide
Celery whether these remains represent wild or cultivated forms." Only by classical times is it certain that celery was cultivated. M. Fragiska mentions an archeological find of celery dating to the 9th century BC, at Kastanas; however, the literary evidence for ancient Greece is far more abundant. In Homer's "Iliad", the horses of the Myrmidons graze on wild celery that grows in the marshes of Troy, and in "Odyssey", there is mention of the meadows of violet and wild celery surrounding the cave of Calypso. In the "Capitulary" of Charlemagne, compiled ca. 800, "apium" appears, as does "olisatum", or alexanders, among