June 27, 2002

MILK THISTLE

Latin Name: Silybum marianum

Alternate Names: Our Lady's Thistle, Marian Thistle, Wild Artichoke

Family: ASTERACEAE

Parts Used: Seeds.

Properties: Antidepressant, Antioxidant, Bitter Tonic, Cholagogue, Demulcent, Digestive Tonic, Galactagogue, Hepatoprotective.

Internal Uses: Alcohol Abuse, Chemical Exposure, Chemotherapy Nausea, Cirrhosis, Depression, Drug Abuse, Environmental Illness, Hepatitis, Jaundice, Psoriasis

Internal Applications: Tincture, Capsules.

Milk Thistle seeds help stimulate protein synthesis in the liver. They even can help reverse the damage done from eating poisonous mushrooms such as Death Cap (Amanita phalloides) or from carbon tetrachloride, which destroy liver cells and usually cause death. When Milk thistle seeds are used within 48 hours, the survival rate is almost 100%. When fed to animals that had partial hepatectomies, their livers grew back more quickly.

Milk thistle is a good supplement to use to protect the liver when needing to take pharmaceutical drugs.

Culinary uses: The seeds can be ground in a coffee grinder and sprinkled on cereal or salads. The Milk Thistle seeds can be used to make gomashio by toasting them and grinding them with some sea salt. The leaves, with the spines removed from the sides, can be cooked as a greens. The young stalks were once cultivated as a vegetable and considered superior to cabbage. Roots can be boiled or steamed.

Energetics: Sweet, Bitter, Cool.

Chemical Constituents: Flavolignans (silymarin), tyramine, histamine, gamma linoleic acid, essential oil, mucilage, bitter principle.

Comments: This plant is called Milk Thistle because the leaves of the plant have white veins that look as if milk was spilled upon them -- according to legend, the milk of the Virgin Mary. Dioscorides wrote that Milk Thistle seeds could be used to treat snake bites. The seeds were consumed by European wet nurses to insure a healthy milk supply.

-- Phil in KS (cshomestead@planetkc.com), June 27, 2002

Answers

here's a picture for ya.....

-- Cheryl in KS (klingonbunny@planetkc.com), June 27, 2002.