Antioxidant and Anti-Hepatitis C Viral Activities of Commercial Milk Thistle Food Supplements
1
Department of Chemistry, Texas Southern University, Houston, TX 77004, USA
2
Department of Medicine, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL 60612, USA
3
Department of Phytochemistry, National Research Center, Dokki 12311, Cairo, Egypt
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
Current Address: Department of Medicine, Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, IL 60153, USA.
Antioxidants 2013, 2(1), 23-36; https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox2010023
Received: 6 November 2012
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Revised: 27 December 2012
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Accepted: 25 January 2013
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Published: 6 February 2013
Milk thistle dietary supplements that contain silymarin are widely marketed and used in the USA and other countries for liver enhancement and recovery. More recently, silymarin has also been identified as a possible antiviral for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. To assess different brands of commercially sold silymarin, 45 products were collected from local stores and analyzed for their silymarin content, antioxidant activities, and antiviral activity against HCV. Antioxidant activity was measured as radical scavenging activity using DPPH and by estimating their antioxidant capacity as trolox equivalent. Anti-HCV activity was measured in an HCV genotype 1b replication inhibition assay. Samples were found to vary widely in their silymarin content, with some samples having none or very low concentrations while silymarin represented higher than 80% of other samples. Both antioxidant and anti-HCV activity correlated with the overall level of silymarin.
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Keywords:
Silybum marianum; radical scavenger; food supplement; over the counter drugs; hepatitis C virus
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MDPI and ACS Style
Anthony, K.; Subramanya, G.; Uprichard, S.; Hammouda, F.; Saleh, M. Antioxidant and Anti-Hepatitis C Viral Activities of Commercial Milk Thistle Food Supplements. Antioxidants 2013, 2, 23-36. https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox2010023
AMA Style
Anthony K, Subramanya G, Uprichard S, Hammouda F, Saleh M. Antioxidant and Anti-Hepatitis C Viral Activities of Commercial Milk Thistle Food Supplements. Antioxidants. 2013; 2(1):23-36. https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox2010023
Chicago/Turabian StyleAnthony, Kevin, Gitanjali Subramanya, Susan Uprichard, Faiza Hammouda, and Mahmoud Saleh. 2013. "Antioxidant and Anti-Hepatitis C Viral Activities of Commercial Milk Thistle Food Supplements" Antioxidants 2, no. 1: 23-36. https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox2010023
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