Milk thistle is highly valued in folk medicine: it is an important source of silymarin, a flavonoid capable of healing damage in the liver and gallbladder. A special product is also made from milk thistle fruits – vegetable oil. It is considered a very beneficial food supplement.

The component (Silymarin) includes:

• Silybin (Silybinin), of which silymarin consists of 50-70% and, accordingly, 39-56% “milk thistle extract”.
• Isosilibin, which occupies about 5% of silymarin.
• Silychristine and Isosilychristine – about 20% silymarin.
• Silidianin – about 10% silymarin.
• Taxifolin (quercetin conjugate, known as dihydroquercetin), usually in almost undetectable levels.

Since silybin is the main active component of this mixture of flavonoids, biological additives from milk thistle are evaluated by the content of silymarin or silybin.

The highest concentration of silymarin (silybin) in various preparations is in extracts of 50-70%, and in biological additives (without extract) - about 20-40%.

Milk thistle oil contains about 0,13 – 0,34 oz/lb of silymarin. Thus, a teaspoon of milk thistle oil contains 0,01 lb of oil and 0,0001 lb of silymarin when using oil with the highest content of this substance.