Silybum
| Silybum subsp. var. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Milk thistles are thistles of the genus Silybum Adans., flowering plants of the daisy family (Asteraceae). They are native to the Mediterranean regions of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. The name "milk thistle" derives from two features of the leaves: they are mottled with splashes of white and they contain a milky sap.[1] However, it is the seeds of milk thistle that herbalists have used for 2000 years to treat chronic liver disease and protect the liver against toxins.[2][3] Increasing research is being undertaken on the physiological effects, therapeutic properties and possible medical uses of milk thistle. [4]
Members of this genus grow as annual or biennial plants. The erect stem is tall, branched and furrowed but not spiny. The large, alternate leaves are waxy-lobed, toothed and thorny, as in other genera of thistle. The lower leaves are cauline (attached to the stem without petiole). The upper leaves have a clasping base. They have large, disc-shaped pink-to-purple, rarely white, solitary flower heads at the end of the stem. The flowers consist of tubular florets. The phyllaries under the flowers occur in many rows, with the outer row with spine-tipped lobes and apical spines. The fruit is a black achene with a white pappus.
| Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture |
|---|
|
Silybum (an old Greek name applied by Dioscorides to some thistle-like plants). Compositae. Erect, glabrous herbs, sometimes grown in European gardens for ornament and also for the edible heads, roots, and lvs.: lvs. alternate, white-maculate above, sinuate-lobed or pinnatifid, the teeth and lobes spiny: heads large, solitary, terminal, nodding, homogamous; involucre broadly subglobose, the bracts in many rows: fls. purplish, all perfect; corolla-tube slender, limb 5-cleft to the middle or base: achenes smooth, obovate, oblong.—Two species, Eu., Afr., and Asia. CH
|
Cultivation
Propagation
Pests and diseases
Species
Only two species are currently classified in this genus:
- Silybum eburneum Coss. & Dur., known as the Silver Milk Thistle, Elephant Thistle, or Ivory Thistle
- Silybum eburneum Coss. & Dur. var. hispanicum
- Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertner, the Blessed Milk Thistle, which has a large number of other common names, such as Variegated Thistle.
The two species hybridise naturally, the hybrid being known as Silybum × gonzaloi Cantó , Sánchez Mata & Rivas Mart. (S. eburneum var. hispanicum x S. marianum)
A number of other plants have been classified in this genus in the past but have since been relocated elsewhere in the light of additional research.
Gallery
photo 1
photo 2
photo 3
References
- ↑ Hogan F, Krishnegowda N, Mikhailova M, Kahlenberg M. (2007). Flavonoid, silibinin inhibits proliferation and promotes cell-cycle arrest of human colon cancer. J Surg Res 143:58-65.
- ↑ Tamayo C, Diamond S. (2007). Review of clinical trials evaluating safety and efficacy of milk thistle (Silybum marianum [L.] Gaertn.). Integrative Cancer Therapies.6:146-157.
- ↑ Hogan F, Krishnegowda N, Mikhailova M, Kahlenberg M. (2007). Flavonoid, silibinin inhibits proliferation and promotes cell-cycle arrest of human colon cancer. J Surg Res 143:58-65.
- ↑ Silybin and silymarin--new and emerging applications in medicine, Curr. Med. Chem., volume 14, issue 3, pages 315–38, 2007
