Silymarin
1、 Pharmacopoeia standard of Silymarin       This product is the dried and mature fruit of Silybum mariamum (L.) gaertrn., a Compositae plant. Harvest the inflorescence when the fruit is ripe in autumn, dry it in the sun, lay the fruit, remove impurities, and dry it in the sun.
      [properties] the product is long obovate or oval, 5-7mm long and 2-3mm wide. The surface is light grayish brown to dark brown, smooth, with fine longitudinal patterns. The top is blunt, slightly wide, with a ring, with punctate style remnants in the middle, and the base is slightly narrow. It is hard. After breaking, two cotyledons can be seen, light yellow white, oily. The air is weak and the taste is light.
      [identification] (1) the powder of this product is grayish brown. The cell surface of exocarp is long polygonal, and some cells contain pigment. Mesocarp cells are cylindrical or oval, and the wall has reticular texture. . The stone cells of endocarp are broadly fusiform on the surface, and the lamina is not obvious. Cotyledon cells contain fine cluster crystals and fatty oil droplets.
      (2) Take 0.5g of the product powder, add 20ml of ether, heat and reflux for 30 minutes, filter, discard the ether solution, volatilize the ether from the drug residue, add 20ml of methanol, heat and reflux for 30 minutes, filter, evaporate the filtrate, add 1ml of methanol to dissolve the residue, and use it as the test solution. In addition, take silibinin reference substance and add methanol to make a solution containing 2mg per 1ml as the reference solution. Test according to thin-layer chromatography (general rule 0502), suck 2 μ l of the above test solution and 5 μ l of the control solution, respectively, onto the same silica gel G thin-layer plate, use toluene ethyl formate formic acid (10:6:1) as the developing agent, develop twice, with an exhibition distance of 8cm, take out, dry, spray with 5% aluminum trichloride ethanol solution, and inspect under the ultraviolet light (365nm). In the chromatogram of the test sample, fluorescent spots of the same color appear at the corresponding positions of the chromatogram of the control sample.
      [check] moisture   Not more than 10.0% (the second method of general rule 0832).
      The total ash content shall not exceed 9.0% (general rule 2302).
      [extract] according to the hot leaching method under the determination method of alcohol soluble extract (general rule 2201), the use of ethanol as solvent shall not be less than 18.0%.
      [content determination] determine according to HPLC (general rule 0512).
      Chromatographic conditions and system suitability test   ; The mobile phase was methanol water glacial acetic acid (48:52:1); The detection wavelength was 287nm. The number of theoretical plates should not be less than 5000 according to silibinin peak,
      Preparation of reference solution   Take an appropriate amount of silibinin reference substance, weigh it accurately, add methanol to make a solution containing 0.12mg per 1ml.
      Preparation of test solution   Take 0.5g of this product powder (passing through No. 3 screen), accurately weigh it, place it in a corked conical flask, precisely add 50ml of 75% methanol, weigh it, heat and reflux for 30 minutes, cool it, weigh it again, make up the lost weight with 75% methanol, shake it well, stand still, and take the supernatant.
      Assay   Accurately suck 5 μ l of the reference solution and 5 μ l of the test solution respectively, inject them into the liquid chromatograph, and determine them. Calculate by the sum of the two peak areas of silibinin.
      According to the calculation of dry product, the silibinin (c25h22o10) content of this product shall not be less than 0.60%.
      Decoction pieces
      [processing] take the original medicinal materials, remove impurities and screen out dust.
      [character], [identification], [inspection], [extract], [content determination] are the same as those of medicinal materials.
      [nature, taste and meridian tropism] bitter and cool. Return to liver and gallbladder channels.
      [functions and indications] it can clear away heat, detoxify, soothe the liver and benefit the gallbladder. .
      .
      [storage] store in a cool and dry place to prevent moths.


2、 Chemical constituents of Silymarin
This product contains dihydrokaemp ferol,Silymarin（silybin）， 3-hydroxysilymarin,Silymarin（silychristin）， Linolenicacid, linoleic acid, oleic acid,palmitic acid（behenicacid）， Silymonin, silandrin, isostlychristin,quercetin （quercetin）。 Seeds contain isosilychristin and quercetin. The seeds contain silybonol,Myristic acid（myristicacid），palmitic acid, stearic acid, oleic acid,Douglasine（taxiflin）， Dehydrosilybin, silymarin, silymarin. 3-hydroxysilymarin, 2,3-dehydrolymarin, 2,3-dehydrosilychri-stin,Betaine hydrochloride（betainehydrochloride）， Cysteine, glycine, glutamate, 2-aminobutyric acid, leucine, tyramine, linoleic acid. In addition, the fatty acids in seed oil (semi dry oil with dry weight of 27.2%) are mainly c16:0 (9.4%), C18:1 (27.1%), C18:2 (55.3%), tocopherol and sterol content are 38mg/g and 670mg%g, respectively. Cholesterol is contained in sterol part,Campesterol（campesterol），Stigmasterol（stigmasteroil）， Sitosterol, 4-methyl-24-ethylidene-7-cholesterol, crude protein.

3、 Pharmacological effects of Silymarin
Silymarin, also known as simarilin, has the effect of protecting liver and treating liver disease, can resist liver poisoning, and has the effect of anti-X-ray. It has no toxicity, and has no adverse reactions even if taken for a long time. This ingredient has been synthesized in Japan.