Milk thistle benefits
milk thistle silymarin milk thistle benefit for liver

Milk thistle is commonly found growing wild in a variety of settings, including roadsides. The seeds of the dried flower are used. Milk thistle's active ingredient is a flavonoid called silymarin, an antioxidant said to protect liver cells from toxins. Sylimarin apparently promotes liver cell protein synthesis and decreases the oxidation of glutathione.
   Milk thistle or silymarin may potentially benefit in a number of diseases involving the liver. The dose of silymarin used in studies has ranged from 200 to 800 mg per day.

Milk Thistle Extract  80% Silymarin, 60 Capsules -Club Natural

Milk Thistle Extract is standardized to 80% silymarin, the key constituent that exerts a protective effect against substances potentially harmful to the liver.


Milk Thistle Supplement Facts:
Milk thistle extract -  200 mg         
   (seed) standardized to 80% Silymarin

Recommendation: Take 1 milk thistle capsule daily or as recommended by your health care provider.

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For more milk thistle health benefit information.

Milk thistle benefit
Milk thistle herb has been used as traditional herbal remedies for 2000 years. Milk thistle herb is still widely used to protect the liver against toxins and to control chronic liver diseases. Research shows milk thistle herb has anticancer, antidiabetic, and cardioprotective effects.

Milk Thistle benefit for liver
Protective effects of silymarin, a milk thistle (Silybium marianum) derivative on ethanol-induced oxidative stress in liver.
Indian J Biochem Biophys. 2006 Oct;43(5):306-11. Department of Biochemistry, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Cochin 682 026, Kerala, India.
Silymarin, derived from the milk thistle plant, Silybium marianum, has been used in traditional medicine as a remedy for diseases of the liver and biliary tract. In the present study, the effect of hepatoprotective drug silymarin on body weight and biochemical parameters, particularly, antioxidant status of ethanol-exposed rats was studied and its efficacy was compared with the potent antioxidant, ascorbic acid as well as capacity of hepatic regeneration during abstention. Silybin showed a significant hepatoprotective activity, but activity was less than that of ascorbic acid. Furthermore, preventive measures were more effective than curative treatment.

Silymarin extraction from milk thistle using hot water.
Duan L, Carrier DJ, Clausen EC. University of Arkansas, 3202 Bell Engineering Center, Fayetteville, AR 72701.
Appl Biochem Biotechnol. 2004 Feb;114(1-3):559-68.
Hot water is attracting attention as an extraction solvent in the recovery of compounds from plant material as the search for milder and "greener" solvents intensifies. The use of hot water as an extraction solvent for milk thistle at temperatures above 100 degrees C was explored. The maximum extraction yield of each of the silymarin compounds and taxifolin did not increase with temperature, most likely because significant compound degradation occurred. However, the time required for the yields of the compounds to reach their maxima was reduced from 200 to 55 min when the extraction temperature was increased from 100 to 140 degrees C. Severe degradation of unprotected (plant matrix not present) silymarin compounds was observed and first-order degradation kinetics were obtained at 140 degrees C.

Milk Thistle and breast cancer
Q. I read a report out of the Mayo Clinic stating that milk thistle herb should be consumed as an extract rather than a pill for estrogen-receptive women (i.e. E-R breast cancers). According to the Mayo clinic, the milk thistle pill form has estrogenic effects. Would you concur with this information?
   A. We are not aware of human studies regarding the use of milk thistle herb or milk thistle extract as a treatment for breast cancer or the risk of taking milk thistle herb or milk thistle extract as breast cancer promoter. Rodent studies and in vitro studies can be quite misleading and may not necessarily represent what occurs in the human body when this herb is ingested in capsule form. The reasonable use of milk thistle herb is not of concern to me in those with breast cancer.

Consumption of silibinin, a flavonolignan from milk thistle, and mammary cancer development in the C3(1) SV40 T,t antigen transgenic multiple mammary adenocarcinoma (TAg) mouse.
Cancer Chemother Pharmacol. 2007 Oct. Cancer Biomarkers and Prevention Group, Department of Cancer Studies, RKCSB, LRI, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE2 7LX, UK
Silibinin is a flavonolignan extracted from milk thistle with cancer chemopreventive activity in preclinical models of prostate and colorectal cancer. A milk thistle extract, of which silibin is a major component, has recently been shown to exacerbate mammary carcinogenesis in two rodent models. We tested the hypothesis that consumption of silibinin or silipide, a silibinin formulation with pharmaceutical properties superior to the unformulated agent, affect breast cancer development in the C3(1) SV40 T,t antigen transgenic multiple mammary adenocarcinoma mouse model. Mice received silibinin or silipide (0.2% silibinin equivalents) with their diet from weaning, and tumour development was monitored by weekly palpation and the number and weight of neoplasms at the end of the experiment. Intervention neither promoted, nor interfered with, tumour development. The result suggests that promotion of carcinogenesis is not a feature of silibinin consistent across rodent models of mammary carcinogenesis.

Silibinin suppresses PMA-induced MMP-9 expression by blocking the AP-1 activation via MAPK signaling pathways in MCF-7 human breast carcinoma cells.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2007 March. Department of Food Science and Technology and The Center for Traditional Microorganism Resources (TMR), Keimyung University, Daegu 704-701, Republic of Korea.
Matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) plays an important role in the invasion and metastasis of cancer cells. In this study, we examined the inhibitory effect of silibinin, a flavonoid antioxidant from milk thistle (Silybum marianum L.) on PMA-induced MMP-9 expression in MCF-7 human breast carcinoma cells. Silibinin significantly and selectively suppressed PMA-induced MMP-9 expression in MCF-7. Our results suggest that silibinin represents a potential anti-metastatic agent suppressing PMA-induced cancer cell invasion through the specific inhibition of AP-1-dependent MMP-9 gene expression.

Enhancement of mammary carcinogenesis in two rodent models by silymarin dietary supplements.
Carcinogenesis. 2006 September. The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota, 801 16th Avenue NE, Austin, MN 55912, USA.
Silymarin is a mixture of polyphenolic flavonoids isolated from milk thistle (Silybum marianum) with anticancer activities reported for several organ sites. The present study tested the efficacy of dietary silymarin against mammary carcinogenesis in two rodent models. In the Sprague-Dawley rat model, female rats were fed a purified diet supplemented with none, 0.03, 0.1, 0.3 or 1% (w/w) of silymarin from 21 days of age (DOA) and carcinogenesis was initiated by a single i.p. injection of 1-methyl-1-nitrosourea (MNU) at 51 DOA. Dietary silymarin increased the plasma concentration of free and total silibinin, a major component of silymarin, in a dose-dependent manner in the rat, but did not decrease either mammary tumor incidence or number. Instead silymarin modestly increased the number of MNU-induced MTs in rats. Similarly, silymarin increased MT incidence and multiplicity and non-MTs in the neu-transgenic mice. In cell culture, treatment of human MCF-7 breast cancer cells with serum-achievable concentrations of silymarin in the rodent models stimulated their growth, in part through an estrogen-like activity. Because silymarin is being used in the treatment of liver cirrhosis and a variety of other human ailments, and is sold as a dietary supplement, our findings add a cautionary note to its application in breast cancer prevention.
   Our comments: Cell studies are not reflective of what occurs in humans. The dosage and concentration of the substances used in cell studies are often multiple times the amounts that a human who be exposed when taking a milk thistle supplement. Plus, the liver often metabolizes the herbs that are ingested and the final compounds that make it to breast tissue are often different than the in vitro cell exposure.

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