An official website of the United States government.

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Dr. Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases
U.S. Department of Agriculture
  1. Home
  2. Silybum marianum

Silybum marianum (Asteraceae)

Common Names
Milk Thistle; Lady's Thistle
How this plant is used
Generally Recognized as Safe
View the list of ubiquitous chemicals
Download these results as:
CSV
EXCEL
PDF
List of plant chemicals.
Click on column headings to sort table by that column. *Unless otherwise noted all references are to (Duke, 1992)
Chemical Name Activity Count Plant Part Low Parts Per Million High Parts Per Million Standard Deviation Reference
APIGENIN-7-O-BETA-GALACTOSIDE 0 Flower *
APIGENIN-7-O-GLUCOSIDE 2 Shoot *
APIGENIN-7-O-GLUCURONIDE 0 Shoot *
ARACHIDIC-ACID 0 Plant J.S. Glasby Dict.Pls Containing 2ndary Metabolite. 1991.
ARACHIDIC-ACID 0 Seed Oil *
AROMADENDRIN 3 Fruit 150.0 *
ASCORBIC-ACID 112 Leaf 26.0 120.0 -0.43 *
ASH 0 Leaf 13860.0 63000.0 -0.98 *
ASH 0 Plant 63000.0 -1.05 Pedersen, M. 1987. Nutritional Herbology. Pederson Publishing. Bountiful, Utah. 377 pp.
BEHENIC-ACID 1 Plant J.S. Glasby Dict.Pls Containing 2ndary Metabolite. 1991.
BEHENIC-ACID 1 Seed Oil *
BETA-CAROTENE 53 Leaf 7.0 31.0 -1.00 *
BETA-CAROTENE 53 Plant 31.0 -0.56 Pedersen, M. 1987. Nutritional Herbology. Pederson Publishing. Bountiful, Utah. 377 pp.
BETA-SITOSTEROL 47 Seed 100.0 -0.59 *
BETAINE 14 Seed 80.0 -1.00 *
CALCIUM 28 Leaf 1421.0 6460.0 -0.82 *
CALCIUM 28 Plant 6460.0 -0.76 *
CHROMIUM 24 Leaf 0.5 2.2 -0.46 *
CHROMIUM 24 Plant 2.2 -0.66 Pedersen, M. 1987. Nutritional Herbology. Pederson Publishing. Bountiful, Utah. 377 pp.
CHRYSOERIOL 7 Fruit *
View the list of ubiquitous chemicals
Download these results as:
CSV
EXCEL
PDF
List of plant activities.
Click on column headings to sort table by that column. *Unless otherwise noted all references are to (Duke, 1992)
Activity Chemical Count Reference
Gastroprotective 1 *
Gastrostimulant 1 Martindale's 28th
Glucosyl-Transferase-Inhibitor 1 *
Glutathionergic 1 *
Glutathionigenic 1 *
Gonadotrophic 1 Malini, T. and Vanithakumari, G. 1989. Rat Toxicity Studies With B-Sitosterol. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 28: 221-234, 1990.
Hemolytic 1 Bisset, N.G., ed. 1994. Herbal Drugs and Phytopharmaceuticals. CRC Press. Boca Raton, FL. 566 pp.
Hemostat 1 Huang, K. C. 1993. The Pharmacology of Chinese Herbs. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL 388 pp.
Hepatomagenic 1 Phenolic Compounds in Food and Their Effects on Health. Antioxidants & Cancer Prevention. Huang, M.T., Ho, C.T. and Lee, C.Y. eds. 1992. ACS Symposium Series 507.ACS, Washington 402 pp.
Hepatoprotective 13 *
Hepatotoxic 1 *
Herbicide 2 Nigg, H.N. and Seigler, D.S., eds. 1992. Phytochemical Resources for Medicine and Agriculture. Plenum Press, New York. 445 pp.
HIF-1alpha-Inhibitor 1 *
Histaminic 1 Martindale's 29th
HIV-RT-Inhibitor 2 Garcia, J., Morin,* C., Nyasse, B., Sondengam, B-L., Tchouankeu, J-C., and Tsamo, E. Complete Structural Assignments Of An Ergosterol Derivative From Entandrophragma utile. Journal of Natural Products, 54(1): 136-142, 1991.
Hyaluronidase-Inhibitor 2 *
Hypercholesterolemic 2 Spiller, G. A. 1996 (Spiller, G. A. Ed. 1996. CRC Handbook of Lipids in Human Nutrition. CRC Press. Boca Raton, FL. 233 pp.)
Hyperglycemic 1 Merck 11th Edition
Hypertensive 2 Davies, S., and Stewart, A. 1990. Nutritional Medicine. Avon Books, New York. 509pp.
Hypocholesterolemic 11 Davies, S., and Stewart, A. 1990. Nutritional Medicine. Avon Books, New York. 509pp.