Milk Thistle: A Future Potential Anti-Osteoporotic and Fracture Healing Agent

Abstract

Osteoporosis is a progressive disease of the skeleton characterised by bone fragility due to a reduction in bone mass and possibly to alteration in bone architecture that lead to a propensity to fracture with minimum trauma. Most osteoporotic fractures occur at locations rich in trabecular or cancellous bone and usually related to post menopausal women. Recently, silymarin received attention due to its alternative beneficial effect on bone formation. It is a mixture of flavonoids with powerful antioxidant properties. This review focuses on the use of milk thistle or silymarin for the treatment of osteoporosis that may be related to fracture bone. Silymarin shows potent antioxidant herb that may modulate multiple genes in favour of helping to build bone and prevent bone loss. In the mouse fracture healing model, silymarin supplementation improved tibial healing with elevated BMD and serum levels of ALP and osteocalcin. Silymarin also demonstrated clear estrogenic antiosteoporotic effects in bone structure. Silymarin appears to play a crucial role to prevent bone loss and might regulate osteogenesis and may be beneficial for fracture healing. If silymarin is considered for the use of post menopausal women, it may be used for the treatment of osteoporosis. It would be of great benefit to postmenopausal women to develop an oestrogen antagonist that is as potent and efficacious as oestrogen in preventing bone loss without the major side effect associated with HRT.

Effects of Silymarin on Diabetes Mellitus Complications: A Review

“…In addition to label indications, many studies have reported the beneficial effects of silymarin for the treatment of several diseases (Fig. ), including sepsis (Kang et al ., ; Toklu et al ., ), burns (Toklu et al ., ), osteoporosis (Kim et al, ; Mohd Fozi et al ., ), arthritis (Gupta et al ., ), hypercholesterolemia (Krecman et al, ; Skottova and Krecman, ), cancer (Singh et al, ; Bosch‐Barrera and Menendez, ; Scavo et al, ; Yurtcu et al, ), viral infections (Lani et al, ), diabetes (Malekinejad et al , ; Soto et al , ; Zhang et al , ; Ebrahimpour Koujan et al , ), Alzheimer's disease (Duan et al, ; Kumar et al, ), and Parkinson's disease (Haddadi et al, ; Lee et al, ). Silymarin treatment likewise attenuated the severity of radiotherapy‐induced mucositis in a clinical trial (Elyasi et al , ).…”

Silymarin as a Natural Antioxidant: An Overview of the Current Evidence and Perspectives

“…Therefore, SM is most well known for its antioxidant and chemoprotective effects on the liver [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ] and it is often prescribed and self-prescribed as a complementary and alternative hepatoprotective medicine [ 12 ]. SM is being studied as a hepato-, neuro-, nephro- and cardio-protective ingredient due to its strong antioxidant and tissue regenerative properties [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ]. There is a range of recent comprehensive reviews covering various routes and mechanisms of action of SM in animal models and human trials [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ] very often referring to its antioxidant properties.…”

“…SM is being studied as a hepato-, neuro-, nephro- and cardio-protective ingredient due to its strong antioxidant and tissue regenerative properties [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ]. There is a range of recent comprehensive reviews covering various routes and mechanisms of action of SM in animal models and human trials [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ] very often referring to its antioxidant properties. However, it seems likely that direct antioxidant (AO) activity of polyphenols does not contribute directly to the antioxidant defence of the body [ 18 , 19 ] and only limited work has been carried out to explore SM/silybin impact on the induction of cellular antioxidant defence via the modulation of various transcription factors, including Nrf2 and NF-κB and respective gene and protein expressions.…”

Efficacy and safety of oral silymarin in comparison with oral doxycycline and their combination therapy in the treatment of acne vulgaris

“…Studies have revealed that it has a strong anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant effects (Singh & Agarwal, 2009). It is also used as a gold standard drug to treat liver disorders through strong antioxidant properties and tissue regeneration (Mohd Fozi, Mazlan, Shuid, & Isa Naina, 2013).…”