The Efficacy And Role Of Milk Thistle Extract

Silybin is the most abundant ingredient in silymarin. It has the pharmacological activities such as scavenging free radicals, resisting lipid peroxidation, protecting liver cell membranes, promoting the damaged liver cells to synthesize to DNA and structural proteins, and anti-fibrosis effect. It is has a good curative effect for acute and chronic hepatitis, Metabolic toxic liver injury and liver cirrhosis .It has been marketed as a drug, and it is a liver injury repairing drug with the recognized curative effect in the world.

Silymarin is a kind of dihydroflavonol compound, which can resist liver poisoning, protect liver cells, and can be used as a bile excretion agent etc.. It has a good curative effect on acute and chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, metabolic toxic liver injury, gallstones and recurrent pain caused by gallstones, cholangitis and other hepatobiliary diseases.

Main Application

It is widely used in medicine, health care, and functional food fields.

Efficiencies and functions

1. Liver protection and antioxidant effect

Silymarin can protect the liver cell membrane by resisting lipid peroxidation and maintaining the fluidity of the cell membrane. It can also inhibit the release of superoxide anion from neutrophils to reduce the liver cell damage caused by inflammatory cells. Other studies have shown that silibinin can increase the expression of the superoxide dismutase ( SOD) in lymphocytes in mice with the chronic alcoholic liver disease, thereby playing an antioxidant role. Moreover, studies have also reported that silibinin can reduce the production of oxidative substances such as reactive oxygen species ( ROS) and malondialdehyde (MDA).

2. Anti-fibrosis effect     

A number of studies have confirmed that silymarin achieves the anti-fibrosis effect by anti-oxidation and directly inhibiting the activation of various cytokines on hepatic stellate cells (HSC).

3. Hepatoprotective and lipid-lowering effect

Experiments in mice have confirmed that silibinin can reduce the content of triglyceride (TG) in the liver and the level of serum TG and total cholesterol (TCh). Moreover, these animal experiments also showed that after the intervention of silibinin, the pathological aspects of the liver (such as steatosis, inflammation and hepatic ballooning) were improved to varying degrees. Studies have also suggested that the drug can reduce the body weight of test animals

4. Anti-inflammatory Effect   

Silybin can reduce the levels of various pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as: IL-8, IL-6, MCP-1 and TNF-α, thereby exerting the anti-inflammatory effects. This effect is realized by inhibiting the activity of IKK-β and p50 and p65, thereby inhibiting the function of NF-κB.