The milk thistle. It is most probably very well known to you. And it also quite possible, that you have got it in your home medicine chest in a form of pills, oil, seeds or as a part of multivitamin agent. In case that you have never heard about milk thistle, now you should sharpen your attention (and continue reading).

If you use Marianskian milk thistle (sylibum marianum) in a right form and quality, it can indeed do for you a lot. This herb namely contains so much prized and very beneficial silymarin.

Silymarin is a summary designation for a mixture of substances from the Marianskian Milk Thistle. The main active substance is a flavonoid (more precisely flavonolignan) called silybin. And this is exactly why the content of silymarin is the most important information on the packaging of any Milk Thistle preparation.

Since thousands of years has milk thistle been used for cleansing of the organism and especially of the liver. According to the recent research, silymarin has a positive impact also on proper functioning of many other organs (kidneys, lungs, digestive system, skin, brain…).

Silymarin occurs mostly in the seeds of milk thistle, small amount of it is also found in the rest of the plant. Remember this information – soon you will learn why it is so important.

WHY PROPERLY FUNCTIONING LIVER IS SO ESSENTIAL FOR THE HEALTH OF WHOLE BODY

Liver is, as it is well known, the main detoxifying organ, some kind of “purifier” of the organism, which breaks down toxins, which are harmful or dangerous for the body. Besides that, it serves many other functions necessary for the health of the whole body: because the liver is processing for your body also beneficial substances, it serves as a central organ for properly functioning metabolism. It creates and processes hormones and it is an important reservoir of many indispensable substances. All of these can liver do – if it is healthy. Nevertheless, the hasty lifestyle, stress, unhealthy food, lack of sleep and of course smoking, alcohol, antibiotics and other drugs – all of this weakens or even destroys our liver (and consequently the whole body). Subsequent failure of liver function is then a life-threatening condition.

After closer acquaintance with the beneficial effects of the milk thistle, respectively the silymarin, we became charmed by this herb. And that is why we have started to search for the best quality preparations with silymarin, the main active substance acquired from the seeds of milk thistle. And because we are not scientists or pharmacist, the base of our “research” came from a common sense, searching, continuous self-education and looking for all available information. As such it has happened, that we have made research of many products based on milk thistle which are available on the Czech and world-wide market.

And what is the result?

Honestly, in the first phase we were rather confused. There were several reasons for that:

· Technical terms on the packages (often they are misleading or simply nonsensical)

· Composition and content of active substances (it appears that the market is too often consciously obscures the essence and real composition of these products)

· Origin and quality of starting material (the producers either do not state it at all, or if so, in the most cases it is Asian production. This for us, the consumers, means a zero chance to check the quality, purity and composition of the starting material)

· Confusion about what is the most appropriate form of use (in the market you can get oil, seeds, tablets, capsules, tinctures or tea. As we will see further, some of those are absolutely pointless with regard to the chemical character of silymarin)

On the packages and in the descriptions of the products we were almost constantly confronted with various marketing tricks and smartistics with their only target – to sell as much as possible. Under a series of claims presented in the list of ingredients you can´t imagine anything specific.

Although we could cite dozens of them, we will give just three examples for the idea:

1. What you imagine under words „standardized silymarin extract“, or „extract of milk thistle? Well, it sounds good, nothing about that….. But what it means? Specifically in these cases we are convinced, that without statement about percentage of concentration, these words have no informative value.

2. On another package we read:,, extract of Marianskian milk thistle ‘‘ in proportion 20 : 1. In this case it is not possible to determine how many and what substances are present in the extract. And it does not mean that the resulting extract is 20 times stronger than the starting material. Please note also that there is no mention of silymarin – the only active substance that makes sense to buy the product.

3. This example concerns the content of active substances per tablet or capsule. . On the Marianskian milk thistle product, the manufacturer advertises an extra strong content of 450 mg per tablet. However, when you read it carefully you will find it to be the sum 100 mg Marianskian milk thistle extract (no single word about silymarin) and 350 mg of powder of dried milk thistle (the manufacturer literally mentions “plant powder”, which practically means crashed “hey”).

However, as we have already mentioned, the active substance silymarin is found in thistle seeds, and that at a concentration of 1,5% to a maximum of 3 %. Silymarin is present only in negligible amounts in roots and leaves).

When you realize all of this, you probably don´t understand as much as we do, why pay for something that comes from a milk thistle but does not bring much health? It´s like they´re offering you apple tree branches instead of apples in the shop, because they also come from apple trees.

In the few examples mentioned, the manufacturer relies on our ignorance and offers a product that is more or less useless (even though the declared content is true and legally unenforceable). The goal is only profit. So it is clear that we must be very careful when buying milk thistle products.

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As in the case of purchased food, in the case of food supplements from pharmacies, we recommend you to carefully read the actual composition of these products. Further equip yourself with the information in this leaflet and – just like us – use a common sense. Because it is actually simple: it is important to know how much silymarin and in what purity = the concentration is in one tablet or capsule. And if you come across a product without this information, we recommend that you return it to the rack and take a look elsewhere.

With such a purchase you would just waste your money.

Our journey to quality products containing silymarin has led us to an absurd situation:

we wanted to buy quality products of Czech origin – and we were willing to pay extra – but we didn´t find anything on the market to please us.

So we decided to make the highest quality silymarin ourselves.

We have started to study literature and production technology, we talked to doctors and manufacturers. When our (in a good sense) obsession became a mission, we founded NATURALIS 21 company.

When we were thinking about the form of usage, for many good reasons we right from the start excluded oil, tea, whole and crushed seeds and tinctures. These forms of usage we found impractical, not to mention that for neither of them a layman has no chance to know the real content of silymarin. In addition, oil and crashed seeds are rapidly degrading due to the ingress of air (turn yellow, respectively oxidize). In addition, in oil there is minimum silymarin. As for the tea, we gave up on it for a simple reason: silymarin is not soluble in water. And tinctures? „Healing“ liver with preparations containing alcohol seemed to us at least.

As you can see, during the development and study of our product we found a lot of interesting things – but of course we also made some mistakes. For example, at the beginning we believed that the ideal form of usage will be tablets.

Nevertheless, further studies proved that capsules are much better (in spite of being more expensive), because:

• The active ingredient in the capsules does not degrade in the acidic environment of the stomach, but after dissolving, the capsule begins to be absorbed into the body where it should do – in the intestines
• Unlike capsules, tablet production takes place on automatic tableting lines under big pressure and at too high temperature, which degrade the individual ingredients in the tablets
• The presence of “sticky” substances is also a problem. They hold the tablet together, further reducing its usability for the body.
• Compare to the capsules, the tablets do not have a high-quality barrier and are destroyed by moisture and air, which shortens their life.

Our capsules are of plant origin and therefore suitable for vegetarians and vegans.

In connection with the form of capsules we were facing another question: How about enriching the silymarin-containing capsule also with other substances like vitamins, trace elements etc.?

We decided not to do it and leave silymarin as the only active substance. We´ll explain why.

Vitamins and other supporting substances give the impression that you are getting more for your money. However, ever good pharmacist will confirm that even scientists, let alone the manufacturer, often do not know how all these substances are metabolized and interacted in the body together. Therefore only magnesium stearate, talc was added to the capsule (the mechanical properties of these substances ensure that each capsule always contains 250 mg of silymarin) and inulin – a soluble non-absorbable fiber that behaves as prebiotic in the intestines. Inulin is very beneficial food for “friendly” intestinal bacteria, thereby helping to establish and maintain the optimal composition of the intestinal microflora. This, in turn, is also the basis for our immunity.

TIP: If you have time and inquisitive spirit, it is definitely worth reading more about inulin and eventually include it in your diet.

Now, with a clear conscience we offer a product that is what it claims to be: capsules with an effective doze of 250 mg in pharmaceutical quality and minimum purity 98 %. Perhaps we can write that we are proud that cultivation of milk thistle, its processing and production of our SILYMARIN (we use capital letter because it is the name of our product) takes place completely in our homeland in the Czech Republic. We found a Czech supplier who processes milk thistle grown exclusively by Czech farmers, to whom he himself supplies certified seeds and subsequently repurchases their harvest. From him we buy already processed silymarin in pharmaceutical quality (with all necessary certificates), which is absolutely exceptional in food supplements.

We are pleased that now in this way we can offer SILYMARIN to you. But we have to say that we really have our own health on our hands. Although SILYMARIN can help with dreaded diseases or their consequences, it is up to each of us to look after his lifestyle first and foremost. If you overuse alcohol, smoke, do not move and have stress, even the best capsules won´t solve it.

SILYMARIN can be a very effective helper on your path to health or to your health maintenance. Nothing more and nothing less.