Milk thistle : Silybum marianum, Composite Tubuliflore family: it is a herbaceous plant that can reach up to 2 meters in height; it presents heads with substantially tubular flowers and is characterized by the silica-coriatic surface.
The drug consists of fruits, called achenes. These fruits are characterized by a lipid fraction that must be eliminated once they have been collected; therefore, essentially, the achenes are collected by the infruttescence which is by now mature by beating, deprived of the pappus (attached feathered organ) and delipidized (the lipid fraction would compromise its conservation as it is easily oxidizable).
The fruits are characterized by an important flavonoid fraction, known as silymarin. Silymarin is a group of flavonoids, called silidianina and silicristina, endowed with an antioxidant and protective activity, aimed mainly at hepatocytes. They are therefore flavonoids that exert their antioxidant capacity in a targeted way towards the hepatic tissue, particularly subject to oxidative phenomena, because it is a barrier / filter with the external world (relative to what we ingest). The flavonoids of milk thistle have a further, important action, which is associated with the antioxidant action: that of stimulation on the regeneration of hepatocytes; fundamentally, they have an anabolic action on the metabolic function of these cells and promote their regeneration.
Not surprisingly, therefore, milk thistle is a drug often associated with recovery therapies from hepato-degenerative disorders, such as cirrhosis. Milk thistle is often associated with boldo, a drug with alkaloids, with which it has a synergic hepatic-functional property, that is aimed at improving and toning liver function. Milk thistle is used, in association with artichoke, also in herbal formulations suitable for the regularization of digestive function.
