Description

Silybum marianum, the milk thistle, is a stout, spiny annual or biennial herb of the family Asteraceae, native to the rocky and dry habitats of southern Europe, the Mediterranean, and western Asia, now widely naturalised in the Americas, South Africa, and Australia. The mottled, white-veined leaves are said to bear the milk of the Virgin Mary in medieval European legend, from which the common name derives. The seeds contain silymarin — a standardised mixture of flavonolignans (silybin, silydianin, silychristin) — documented in the European Pharmacopoeia and studied extensively for hepatoprotective properties since the 1960s German phytopharmacological research. Milk thistle is listed in the Commission E (German) herbal monographs and widely incorporated in botanical liver-support formulations globally. Commercially cultivated in Argentina, Hungary, and Poland.