Milk thistle, native to the Mediterranean region, has been used as a medicinal plant for nearly two thousand years and is still widely used as a very effective liver-protecting plant. It can help detoxify the liver and can also be used to manage the chronic liver disease. Milk thistle can activate the regeneration of liver proteins, restore the activity of liver cells damaged by alcohol and viruses, remove free radicals, maintain the permeability of liver cell membranes, reduce the damage of toxins to the liver, and protect the liver and liver from long-term drinking. People with acute and chronic hepatitis, fatty liver, cirrhosis, and toxic liver damage.

Milk thistle extract, also known as silymarin. It is a mixture in which the main active ingredient is silibinin.

In the body, silibinin mainly exhibits anti-oxidation effects, which can inhibit the production of free radicals and lipid superoxidation, thereby protecting the liver. The water solubility of silybin is very poor. Therefore, the extraction method of milk thistle should adopt the vegetable fat-soluble extraction method instead of the water-soluble process. Therefore, even soaking the milk thistle plant in water will not have much effect. The biological tolerance of milk thistle extract is excellent, even if an adult takes 13 grams daily, there will be no obvious poisoning reaction. Medicines with milk thistle extract as the main ingredient, such as Legalon and Silimarit, have been used for many years in Europe, mainly for liver detoxification and treatment of chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis.

In China, relevant scholars have also done a lot of pharmacological and clinical research on milk thistle extract. Li Rongping et al. discussed the effect and mechanism of silibinin on hepatocyte swelling and death in acute liver injury. Experiments have shown that silibinin can significantly reduce the activity of serum transaminases in acute liver injury model rats, the degree of liver tissue injury is alleviated under the microscope, and the swelling of liver cells is reduced. To observe the curative effect of silibinin in treating alcoholic fatty liver, the experiment proves that silibinin has a better curative effect in treating alcoholic fatty liver, can improve liver function, and lower blood fat. The total effective rate of the treatment group was 86.7%, and that of the control group was 46.7%. The effect was significantly better than that of the control group, with a definite curative effect and safe application.