BYHEALTH Institute of Nutrition and Health, Guangzhou 510663, China.
Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.
Molecules. 2024 Jun 21;29(13):2949. doi: 10.3390/molecules29132949.
Milk thistle is one of the most popular ingredients in the liver protection products market. Silymarin is the main component of milk thistle and contains multiple isomers. There have been few studies focusing on the compositional ratios of silymarin isomers. In this study, we developed an HPLC method for the separation and quantification of silymarin isomers, thereby elucidating their compositional ratios. Through the analysis of more than 40 milk thistle extract products on the market, we found that the ratios, specifically Ratio 1 (the silybin B content to the silybin A content, SBNB/SBNA) and Ratio 2 (the sum of the contents of silybin B and isosilybin B to the sum of the contents of silybin A and isosilybin A, (SBNB + IBNB)/(SBNA + IBNA)), are highly consistent across milk thistle extracts, averaging approximately 1.58 and 1.28, respectively. Furthermore, such ratios were verified in milk thistle seed samples. This study introduces significant findings concerning the stable ratios among silymarin isomers in milk thistle extracts and seeds, thereby offering an innovative approach for quality assurance of milk thistle extracts.
水飞蓟是护肝产品市场中最受欢迎的成分之一。水飞蓟素是水飞蓟的主要成分，包含多种同分异构体。目前，关于水飞蓟素同分异构体组成比例的研究较少。本研究建立了一种高效液相色谱法（HPLC），用于分离和定量水飞蓟素同分异构体，从而阐明其组成比例。通过对市场上 40 多种水飞蓟提取物产品进行分析，我们发现这些产品的比值，特别是比值 1（水飞蓟宾 B 与水飞蓟宾 A 的含量比，SBNB/SBNA）和比值 2（水飞蓟宾 B 和异水飞蓟宾 B 的含量之和与水飞蓟宾 A 和异水飞蓟宾 A 的含量之和的比值，(SBNB + IBNB)/(SBNA + IBNA)），在水飞蓟提取物中高度一致，平均约为 1.58 和 1.28。此外，我们还在水飞蓟种子样品中验证了这些比值。本研究介绍了水飞蓟提取物和种子中稳定的水飞蓟素同分异构体比例的重要发现，为水飞蓟提取物的质量保证提供了一种创新方法。
