1. Product Name: Milk Thistle Extract ( 70% to 85% Silymarin)

2. Botanical Source: Silybum Marianum

3. Specifications: 80% Silymarin UV + 30% Silybin & Isosilybin HPLC

4. CAS No.: 22888-70-6

5. Apperance: Light Yellow Powder

6. Used Part: Seed

7. Country of Origin: Northeast of China

 

 

8. Description

  It grows 40 to 100 cm tall. The stem is grooved and more or less cottony.The leaves are oblong to lanceolate. They are either wavy loved or pinnated, have spiny edges. They are hairless, shiny green, with milk white veins.The flower heads are 4 to 5 cm long and wide, of red-purple colour. They flower from June to August.The bracts are hairless, with triangular, spine-edged appendages, tipped with a stout yellow spine.The achenes are black, with simple long white pappus, surrounded by a yellow basal ring.

 

9. Medicinal Uses

  In herbalism, it is used in cases of liver diseases (cirrhosis, jaundice and hepatitis), gallbladder disease, and is claimed to protect the liver against poisons. Silibinin (syn. silybin, sylimarin I) is a hepatoprotective (antihepatotoxic), antioxidant (radical-scavenging agent), thus stabilizing and protecting the membrane lipids of the hepatocytes (liver cells). Silicristin inhibits the enzymes peroxidase and lipoxygenase. Silidianin is a plant growth regulator. A 2000 study of such claims by the AHRQ concluded that "clinical efficacy of milk thistle is not clearly established". However a more recent study did show activity against liver cancers. A 2005 Cochrane Review considered thirteen randomised clinical trials which assessed milk thistle in 915 patients with alcoholic and/or hepatitis B or C virus liver diseases. They question the beneficial effects of milk thistle for patients with alcoholic and/or hepatitis B or C virus liver diseases and highlight the lack of high-quality evidence to support this intervention. Cochrane concluded more good quality randomised clinical trials on milk thistle versus placebo are needed.

  Its potent extract is used in medicine under the name silymarin (a flavonolignane complex consisting of silibinin A and B/silybin/silymarin I, isosilibinin A and B, silicristin/silymarin II, silidianin). Silibinin is used against poisoning by amanitas, such as the Death Cap (Amanita phalloides) as well as in cerebral edema and acute hepatitis therapy.

Mary thistle has been grown as a medicinal plant in monasterial gardens since ancient times.