Post by Tim Wescott on May 10, 2004 11:26:04 GMT -5
Milk Thistle :
Today, milk thistle is best known as a producer of liver protectant known as silymarin, a group of milk thistle flavonoids. The milk thistle in commerce is a standardized extracts prepared from the fruits (seeds) of Silybum marianum. Like Ginkgo biloba, milk thistle is required to be standardized and rendered to concentrated forms to be effectively used for desired medicinal purposes, which, in this case, is as a hepatoprotectant. In general, milk thistle extracts are standardized to a concentration of 70-80% of flavone lignans including isosilybinin, silybinin, silychristin, and silydianin, which are collectively called silymarin.
History
Milk thistle has been known in Europe and other Mediterranean countries since ancient times. Theophrastus mentioned about milk thistle around 4th century, B.C. Dioscorides wrote about the medicinal value of milk thistle, and Pliny the Elder wrote on the improvement of bile flow by milk thistle, calling it "Silybum" around the 1st century, A.D. Nicholas Culpeper, an English herbalist mentioned in 1650 that milk thistle is effective for removing liver obstructions. Von Haller documented the use of milk thistle for liver ailments in 1744. Milk thistle has been mentioned as a folkloric remedy for asthma, cancer, catarrh, chest pains, dropsy, fever, hepatitis, rabies, jaundice, vaginal discharge, malaria, plague, spasms, and spleen problems. Milk thistle has been under scientific and clinical investigation since turn of the last century, mainly in Germany. In the 1960s, German scientists identified a group of active ingredients from milk thistle, mainly from the seeds, and named them collectively as "silymarin". The preparation of milk thistle fruits and seeds were approved by German Commission E as a highly safe and effective herb for liver health.
Usage
German Commission E approved the internal use of crude milk thistle fruit preparations for dyspeptic complaints. Standardized extracts (usually ranging in silymarin concentration from 70 to 80%) are approved for toxic liver damage and as a supportive treatment for chronic inflammatory liver disease and hepatic cirrhosis.
Silymarin is known to protect the liver by altering and strengthening the structure of outer cell membranes of hepatocytes (liver cells), preventing toxins from entering the liver cells, and by stimulating the regenerative ability of the liver and the formation of new hepatocytes through the activation of an enzyme nucleolar polymerase A, which leads to the increase in ribosomal protein synthesis and cell division. Silymarin, as an anti-oxidant, may also reduce damages to liver cells caused by chronic use of certain prescription drugs. The silybin component of sillymarin has been related to cholesterol-lowering effects. Through the capability to increase bile solubility, sylimarin may also help prevent or alleviate gallstones.
Today, milk thistle is best known as a producer of liver protectant known as silymarin, a group of milk thistle flavonoids. The milk thistle in commerce is a standardized extracts prepared from the fruits (seeds) of Silybum marianum. Like Ginkgo biloba, milk thistle is required to be standardized and rendered to concentrated forms to be effectively used for desired medicinal purposes, which, in this case, is as a hepatoprotectant. In general, milk thistle extracts are standardized to a concentration of 70-80% of flavone lignans including isosilybinin, silybinin, silychristin, and silydianin, which are collectively called silymarin.
History
Milk thistle has been known in Europe and other Mediterranean countries since ancient times. Theophrastus mentioned about milk thistle around 4th century, B.C. Dioscorides wrote about the medicinal value of milk thistle, and Pliny the Elder wrote on the improvement of bile flow by milk thistle, calling it "Silybum" around the 1st century, A.D. Nicholas Culpeper, an English herbalist mentioned in 1650 that milk thistle is effective for removing liver obstructions. Von Haller documented the use of milk thistle for liver ailments in 1744. Milk thistle has been mentioned as a folkloric remedy for asthma, cancer, catarrh, chest pains, dropsy, fever, hepatitis, rabies, jaundice, vaginal discharge, malaria, plague, spasms, and spleen problems. Milk thistle has been under scientific and clinical investigation since turn of the last century, mainly in Germany. In the 1960s, German scientists identified a group of active ingredients from milk thistle, mainly from the seeds, and named them collectively as "silymarin". The preparation of milk thistle fruits and seeds were approved by German Commission E as a highly safe and effective herb for liver health.
Usage
German Commission E approved the internal use of crude milk thistle fruit preparations for dyspeptic complaints. Standardized extracts (usually ranging in silymarin concentration from 70 to 80%) are approved for toxic liver damage and as a supportive treatment for chronic inflammatory liver disease and hepatic cirrhosis.
Silymarin is known to protect the liver by altering and strengthening the structure of outer cell membranes of hepatocytes (liver cells), preventing toxins from entering the liver cells, and by stimulating the regenerative ability of the liver and the formation of new hepatocytes through the activation of an enzyme nucleolar polymerase A, which leads to the increase in ribosomal protein synthesis and cell division. Silymarin, as an anti-oxidant, may also reduce damages to liver cells caused by chronic use of certain prescription drugs. The silybin component of sillymarin has been related to cholesterol-lowering effects. Through the capability to increase bile solubility, sylimarin may also help prevent or alleviate gallstones.