Silymarin, which is found in milk thistle, is commonly used as a supplement to protect the liver, but unless a person stops drinking alcohol, it will not heal their liver. “There is no magic pill that will protect a person from cirrhosis or other diseases caused by alcohol,” Michal Šelc from the Center for the Use of Advanced Materials of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV) stated in the TASR TV Zdravie program.
As he added, alcohol is a toxin for the liver and the best way to heal it is to stop drinking. “If you stop drinking, the liver regenerates, and silymarin can help speed that up,” he specified.
“Silymarin is a mixture of several biological substances, the most represented is silybin, which makes up 40-60 percent,” zoomed in on the scientist. As he added, both silybin and silymarin have good antioxidant effects, they relieve cellular stress caused by free radicals. “They also dampen chronic inflammation and promote liver regeneration,” he stated.
In their research on milk thistle, SAV scientists investigated the effect of silymarin and its components on tumor and non-tumor cells. One of the minor components of silymarin, which is called isosilybin B, was found to have a greater effect on tumor cells than the other components of silymarin. “Isosilybin B was kinder to healthy cells and killed more tumor cells,” evaluated Šelc.
Scientists continue to research milk thistle, the goal is to increase the effect on the liver. “One possibility is to attach flavonolignans from silymarin to nanoparticles, on which other molecules are also capable of targeting these nanoparticles to the tumor cell,” zoomed in.
At the same time, he explained that thanks to these nanoparticles, the availability of the active substance in the liver will increase. “I plan to compare all eight major flavonolignans and find out which one has the greatest effect and then attach it to the nanoparticles and do experiments with them,” explained the scientist.
In this context, he recalled that milk thistle has the greatest effect when it reaches the liver directlywhich does not know about itself, because it is almost insoluble in water. According to him, application using nanoparticles could be one of the possibilities in the future.
