Divalent or multivalent molecules often show enhanced biological activity relative to the simple monomeric units. Here we present enzymatically and chemically prepared dimers of the flavonolignans silybin and 2,3-dehydrosilybin. Their electrochemical behavior was studied by in situ and ex situ square wave voltammetry. The oxidation of monomers and dimers was similar, but adsorption onto the ele...

Silybum marianum or milk thistle (MT) is the most well-researched plant in the treatment of liver disease. The active complex of MT is a lipophilic extract from the seeds of the plant and is composed of three isomer flavonolignans (silybin, silydianin, and silychristin) collectively known as silymarin. Silybin is a component with the greatest degree of biological activity and makes up 50% to 70...

Seven pure flavonolignans were isolated from an extract of milk thistle [Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn (Asteraceae)], by semipreparative reverse-phase HPLC, and identified based on spectroscopic and LC-MS=IT-TOF data. All seven compounds were screened as potential antitumor-promoting agents by using the in vitro short-term 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA)induced Epstein-Barr virus earl...

Previously we have shown that perorally administered silymarin, a mixture of flavonolignans extracted from the seeds of Silybum marianum, possesses a hypocholesterolemic effect in rats fed high cholesterol diet enriched with fat. The aim of this paper was to complete the data concerning peroral and parenteral administration of silymarin. The rats fed standard laboratory diet did not respond to ...

Substituted pyrazinecarboxamides markedly influenced production of flavonolignans in Silybum marianum callus and suspension cultures. In this study the effect of two compounds, N-(3-iodo-4-methylphenyl)pyrazine-2-carboxamide (1) and N-(3-iodo-4-methylphenyl)-5-tert-butyl-pyrazine-2-carboxamide (2), as abiotic elicitors on flavono-lignan production in callus culture of S. marianum was investigat...

Milk thistle extract is one of the most commonly used nontraditional therapies, particularly in Germany. Milk thistle is known to contain a number of flavonolignans. We evaluated the effect of silymarin, on the activity of various hepatic drug-metabolizing enzymes in human hepatocyte cultures. Treatment with silymarin (0.1 and 0.25 mM) significantly reduced the activity of CYP3A4 enzyme (by 50 ...

Silymarin is a hepatoprotective mixture of flavonolignans and flavonoids extracted from the seeds of milk thistle (Silybum marianum L. Gaertn). This study investigates the effect of major bioactive constituents from silymarin, silybin A, silybin B, isosilybin A, isosilybin B, silydianin, silychristin, isosilychristin, and taxifolin, on the expression of ABCA1, an important cholesterol efflux tr...

Previously we have shown that peroraly administered silymarin, a mixture of antioxidant flavonolignans from medicinal plant Silybum marianum (L.), prevents both the accumulation of exogenous cholesterol in the liver and the development of diet-induced hypercholesterolemia in rat1, 2. The silymarin-induced decrease of plasma cholesterol has been associated with a decrease in apo B containing lip...

Carduus nutans L. is a biennial plant which is belonging to Asteraceae family known as musk or nodding thistle commonly. Carduus species includes different active ingredients like essential oil, resin, tannin, fatty oil, starch, flavonolignans, polyacetylenes. Importance of phytochemistry and chemical ecology researches increase gradually. The fat extraction was carried out by Soxhlet method wi...

Silymarin (SL), a mixture of flavonolignans mainly including silybin A and B, isosilybin A and B, silidianin, and silychristine from the seeds of Silybum marianum L., has been widely used to treat acute and chronic viral hepatitis, toxin/drug-induced hepatitis, cirrhosis, alcoholic fatty liver diseases and other ailments because of its excellent hepatoprotective effect. Silybin is the most acti...