When Pliny the Elder prescribed milk thistle 2,000 years ago, he did so for a variety of health concerns, including serpent bites, melancholy, plague and milk production, in addition to “carrying off bile.”
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2 Now, the popularity of milk thistle is soaring, not only for treating chronic liver problems for which it is best known, but also for its ability to protect other organs from the damaging effects of radiation, chemotherapy, other xenobiotics and chronic disease.
3 For example, its antioxidant actions decrease gentamicin-induced nephrotoxicity in dogs;
4 milk thistle also promotes kidney function in patients with end-stage diabetic nephropathy.
5 What’s in ItMilk thistle extract, the first substance extracted from the crushed seeds, contains up to 80 percent silymarin, the main active constituent.
6 In contrast, the silymarin content of unprocessed seeds may fall as low as 4 percent silymarin.
7 Some manufacturers standardize the silymarin content to ensure equivalence between batches. Silibinin (or silybin), a semi-purified fraction of silymarin, acts as an important marker for research to track pharmacokinetics and ensure adequate plasma and target tissue concentrations.
8 Monitoring pharmacokinetics becomes especially important when studying phytomedicinals exhibiting poor or erratic bioavailability, as do the flavonolignans comprising silymarin. Complexing silibinin with phophatidylcholine dramatically improves oral availabi...
Copyright 2009 BowTie Inc.
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