Milk Thistle and Artichoke: The Liver’s Friendly Plants

Liver Protection

The liver is an organ that performs a number of essential functions for the body: enzyme production, metabolism control, destruction of cells and toxic substances.
Given its crucial role, plants have always been used to protect it and improve its functioning.

The milk thistle has been used for over 2000 years because it contains silymarin.
Artichoke is also to be classified among effective plants thanks to an active substance it contains: cynarin.

These two substances help liver functions in three ways:

• by increasing bile secretion allowing the digestion of fats and the transport of toxic substances.
• by promoting the evacuation of bile into the duodenum. Bile excretion reduces the duration of toxins’ presence in the liver.
• by protecting liver cells.

An initial use can be recommended as a detoxification cure after winter or in case of medication intake (statins or heavy treatments such as chemotherapy).
One can also occasionally use these two plants in case of heavy or overly indulgent meals because silymarin and cynarin help eliminate toxins and digest fats.

Cynarin is also a liver protector used in the context of alcohol detoxification.

Extracts of milk thistle or artichoke are found in ampoules (decoction), capsules or in alcohol maceration.
There are also elixirs mixing these plants with other very useful plant substances for liver comfort such as black radish, desmodium.

In the context of capsules, it is essential to check the dosage of cynarin and silymarin for the treatment to be effective.
The extraction of the active principles of these two plants in the form of alcoholic macerations reduces the bad taste and bitterness of the plants.
Finally, elixirs made on a blackcurrant wine base are found combining efficacy and taste.

Preventively or curatively, milk thistle and artichoke remain the liver’s friends.