Milk thistle (Silybum marianum) is a medicinal plant that has been used for thousands of years as a remedy for a variety of ailments. The main component of S. marianum fruit extract (silymarin) is a flavonolignan called silybin, which is not only the major silymarin element but is also the most active ingredient of this extract, which has been confirmed in various studies. This compound belongs...

Silymarin, a flavonolignan from the seeds of ‘milk thistle’ (Silybum marianum), has been widely used from ancient times because of its excellent hepatoprotective action. It is a mixture of mainly three flavonolignans, viz, silybin, silidianin, and silychristine, with silybin being the most active. Silymarin has been used medicinally to treat liver disorders, including acute and chronic viral he...

Silybum marianum (milk thistle) is a medicinal plant used for the treatment of various liver disorders. This study examined whether the main flavonolignans from S. marianum (i.e. silybin, silychristin, silydianin) and their 2,3-dehydro derivatives (i.e. 2,3-dehydrosilybin, 2,3-dehydrosilychristin, 2,3-dehydrosilydianin) activate the Nrf2 pathway, which regulates the expression of genes encoding...

Extracts from the seeds of milk thistle, Silybum marianum , are known commonly as silibinin and silymarin and possess anticancer actions on human prostate carcinoma in vitro and in vivo. Seven distinct flavonolignan compounds and a flavonoid have been isolated from commercial silymarin extracts. Most notably, two pairs of diastereomers, silybin A and silybin B and isosilybin A and isosilybin B,...

The present study investigated the effect of silibinin, the principal potential anti-inflammatory flavonoid contained in silymarin, a mixture of flavonolignans extracted from Silybum marianum seeds, on palmitate-induced insulin resistance in C2C12 myotubes and its potential molecular mechanisms. Silibinin prevented the decrease of insulin-stimulated 2-NBDG (2-[N-(7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1,3-diazol-4-...

Elicitation with middle-viscous chitosan (30 mg/50 mL) significantly stimulated silymarin synthesis in Silybum marianum hairy root cultures. The root cultures established by infection with Agrobacterium rhizogenes AR15834 showed a potential for production of silymarin. Elicitation with medium molecular weight of chitosan (0, 5, 10, 20, and 30 mg/50 mL) was used in order to imp...

The study aimed to evaluate the hepatic antioxidant capacity of embelin (from Embelia ribes) using different antioxidant tests, free radical scavenging activity and lipid peroxidation in albino rats. Carbon tetrachloride (CCl₄) treatment to rats has been more susceptible to peroxidative damage through production of reactive metabolites, namely trichloromethyl-free radicals (CCl₃• and/or CCl₃• O...

Drug-metabolizing enzymeswithin enterocytes constitute a key barrier to xenobiotic entry into the systemic circulation. Furanocoumarins in grapefruit juice are cornerstone examples of diet-derived xenobiotics that perpetrate interactions with drugs via mechanism-based inhibition of intestinal CYP3A4. Relative to intestinal CYP3A4-mediated inhibition, alternate mechanisms underlying dietary subs...

Silymarin (SM), an extract from the Silybum marianum (milk thistle) plant containing various flavonolignans (with silybin being the major one), has received a tremendous amount of attention over the last decade as a herbal remedy for liver treatment. In many cases, the antioxidant properties of SM are considered to be responsible for its protective actions. Possible antioxidant mechanisms of SM...

Drug-metabolizing enzymes within enterocytes constitute a key barrier to xenobiotic entry into the systemic circulation. Furanocoumarins in grapefruit juice are cornerstone examples of diet-derived xenobiotics that perpetrate interactions with drugs via mechanism-based inhibition of intestinal CYP3A4. Relative to intestinal CYP3A4-mediated inhibition, alternate mechanisms underlying dietary sub...