HEALTH NEWS

Study Title:

Milk Thistle (Silymarin): A Future Potential Anti-Osteoporotic & Fracture Healing Agent.

Study Abstract

Osteoporosis is a progressive disease of the skeleton characterised by bone fragility due to a reduction in bone mass and possibily to alteration in bone architecture that leads to a propensity to fracture with minumun trauma Most osteoporotic fracture occur at locations rich in trabecular or cancellous bone and usually related to post menopausal women. Recently silymarin received attention due to its altenative beneficial effect on bone formation. Silymarin is a mixture of flavanoids with powerful antioxidant properties. This review focus on the use of milk thistle or silymarin for the treatment of osteoporosis that may related to fracture bone. Silymarin showspotent antioxidant herb may modulates 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 in osteogenesis and may be beneficial for fracture healing. If silymarin is considered or the used of post menopausal women, it may be used for the treatement of osteoporosis. It would be of great benefit to postmenopousal 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.

Study Information

Mohd Fozi NF, Mazlan M, Shuid AN, Naina Mohamed I.
Milk Thistle: A Future Potential Anti-Osteoporotic & Fracture Healing Agent.
Curr Drug Targets.
2013 October
Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur Campus, 50300 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.