Milk thistle

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Milk thistle
Milk thistle (Silybum marianum)

Milk thistle ( Silybum marianum )

Systematics
Order : Astern-like (Asterales)
Family : Daisy family (Asteraceae)
Subfamily : Carduoideae
Tribe : Cynareae
Genre : Milk Thistles ( Silybum )
Type : Milk thistle
Scientific name
Silybum marianum
( L. ) Gaertn.

The milk thistle ( Silybum marianum ) - regional and Christ crown , thunder thistle , fever thistle , Fechdistel , Mrs Thistle , Savior thistle , with the names of fruits Marie grains or piercing grains - is a plant that the subfamily of Carduoideae belongs. The name of the milk thistle comes from an old legend according to which the white stripes on its leaves come from the milk of the Virgin Mary .

description

The milk thistle is a one to two year old plant that reaches a stature height of 20 to 150 cm. The bare or slightly cobweb-downy, green stem is usually branched and wingless. The basal leaves are 25 to 50 cm long and 12 to 25 cm wide. First year rosettes of the milk thistle can also reach a diameter of 1.3 m in south-western Central Europe. The basal leaves are elongated to elliptical, pinnate, stalked, glabrous or balding, marbled white, shiny, with yellowish-white thorns up to 8 mm long on the edge . The stem leaves are smaller, less deeply divided, eyed at the base, encompassing the stem and sitting.

The baskets are 4 to 5 cm long and stand individually on long, upright stems, sometimes with a few small bracts. The bracts have an 8 to 15 mm long and 6 to 10 mm wide, thorny toothed appendage, which ends in a 2 to 5 centimeter long, strong, bent back, runny thorn. The purple crown is deep five columns. The 6 to 8 × 2.5 to 4 mm large achenes are glossy black with gray spots and have a 15 to 20 mm long pappus at the tip . They weigh an average of 32.4 mg.

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 34.

Milk thistle ( Silybum marianum )

Occurrence

The milk thistle is mainly found in the Mediterranean area , but it is also found in the Canary Islands , the Azores and Madeira and extends eastward to southern Russia and Iran. In some places in Central Europe it has become feral. It is naturalized as an invasive plant in North and South America as well as in South Australia.

As the site are path sides as Waste places, roadsides, pastures preferably over mostly dry, rocky soils. The milk thistle occurs in the Mediterranean region in companies of the Chenopodion murale association.

use

Cultivation and harvest

For medicinal use, the milk thistle is grown on large fields in Austria ( Waldviertel ), Hungary, Germany ( Westerwald ), Argentina, Venezuela and China. The fruits are ripe in August and then swathed (= cut and deposited) and harvested after a few days with conventional combine harvesters. Direct threshing is also widespread in some countries. After the harvest, the fruits are cleaned.

Medical application

Milk thistle has been used as a remedy since ancient times, e.g. B. Dioscorides recommended them against snakebites and Pliny the Elder. Ä. for "biliary discharge". It has been prescribed for the liver since the Middle Ages. In modern times, in addition to dried plants, there are also standardized preparations with the active ingredient complex silymarin as a "liver-protecting", detoxifying agent. Alternative medicine experts attribute the liver-protecting effect to anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic flavonoids; cirrhosis of the liver is one of the modern diagnoses treated with it . The results of scientific studies are contradicting, reported positive effects could not be reproduced, but the application seems at least to be harmless. However, silymarin contains a powerful inhibitor of the thyroid hormone transporter MCT8. The data on the hoped-for anti-cancer effect are also very weak. The milk thistle has a certain importance as an antidote against amatoxin poisoning (the poison of the cap mushrooms ); Silymarin is said to competitively inhibit the uptake of the toxin in the liver cells.

Other active ingredients of the plant are: bitter substances , biogenic amines , tannins , colorings , and to a small extent also essential oils , unknown pungent substances and resins .

Milk thistle fruits are also used in the field of livestock feeding, whereby the liver therapeutic effect is the main focus.

photos

  • blossom

  • Appearance ( habitus )

  • Fruiting plant

  • Basal rosette

  • Stem leaf

  • fruit

  • Cultivation

literature

Web links

Commons : Silybum marianum  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k J. do Amaral Franco: Silybum. In: TG Tutin, VH Heywood, NA Burges, DM Moore, DH Valentine, SM Walters, DA Webb (eds.): Flora Europaea . Volume 4: Plantaginaceae to Compositae (and Rubiaceae) . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1976, ISBN 0-521-08717-1 , pp. 249 (English, limited preview in Google Book search).
  2. ↑ a b c d e f milk thistle. In: FloraWeb.de. , accessed February 11, 2013.
  3. ↑ BiolFlor ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed February 11, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www2.ufz.de
  4. ↑ a b Gerhard Wagenitz (Ed.): Illustrated Flora of Central Europe. Pteridophyta, Spermatophyta . Founded by Gustav Hegi. 2nd revised and expanded edition. Volume VI. Part 4: Angiospermae, Dicotyledones 4 (Compositae 2, Matricaria - Hieracium) . Paul Parey, Berlin / Hamburg 1987, ISBN 3-489-86020-9 , pp. 917–919, 1401–1402 (revised reprint of the 1st edition (Volume VI / 2 of 1929) with addendum).
  5. ^ Erich Oberdorfer : Plant-sociological excursion flora for Germany and neighboring areas . With the collaboration of Angelika Schwabe and Theo Müller. 8th, heavily revised and expanded edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 2001, ISBN 3-8001-3131-5 , pp.  967 .
  6. ^ Paul M. Coates, Marc Blackman: Encyclopedia of Dietary Supplements (Print) . CRC Press, December 29, 2004, ISBN 978-0-8247-5504-1 , p. 467.
  7. ↑ F. Fiebrich, H. Koch: Silymarin, an inhibitor of lipoxygenase. In: Experientia. Volume 35, No. 12, 1979, pp. 1548-1550, PMID 118048 , doi: 10.1007 / BF01953184 .
  8. ↑ F. Fiebrich, H. Koch: Silymarin, an inhibitor of prostaglandin synthetase. In: Experientia. Volume 35, No. 12, 1979, pp. 1550-1552, PMID 118049 , doi: 10.1007 / BF01953185 .
  9. ↑ Leah Hechtman: Clinical Naturopathic Medicine - E-Book . Elsevier Health Sciences, October 31, 2012, ISBN 0-7295-8151-9 , p. 267.
  10. ↑ F. Rainone: thistle Milk. In: American family physician. Volume 72, Number 7, October 2005, pp. 1285-1288, PMID 16225032 (review).
  11. ↑ Jörg Johannes, Roopa Jayarama-Naidu, Franziska Meyer, Eva Katrin Wirth, Ulrich Schweizer: Silychristin, a Flavonolignan Derived From the Milk Thistle, Is a Potent Inhibitor of the Thyroid Hormone Transporter MCT8 . In: Endocrinology . tape 157 , no. 4 , April 2016, ISSN  1945-7170 , p. 1694-1701 , doi : 10.1210 / en.2015-1933 , PMID 26910310 .
  12. ↑ PDQ Cancer Information Summaries: Milk Thistle (Patient Version). January 5, 2007
  13. ↑ U. Mengs, RT Pohl, T. Mitchell: Legalon® SIL: the antidote of choice in patients with acute hepatotoxicity from amatoxin poisoning. In: Current pharmaceutical biotechnology. Volume 13, Number 10, August 2012, pp. 1964–1970, PMID 22352731 , PMC 3414726 (free full text) (Review; the authors are employees of the manufacturer)