IDENTIFICATION AND QUANTITATIVE DETERMINATION OF SILYMARIN IN SILYBUM MARIANUM AND ITS PHARMACEUTICAL PREPARATIONS

The bienial milk-thistle belongs to the compositae family, with two meters height. The plant self-grows in road-sides and abandoned grounds in northern areas of Iran. The plant seeds are used for preventing and treatment of hepatic disorders. Its active components are comprised silibinin, silicristin and silidianin isomers, formerly called silymarin. Silymarin have antitoxic effect. The plant seeds were collected in summer 2000 from Isfahan country-side Barij Essence Co. Research farm. The silymarin of seed and several other pharmaceutical preparations were extracted using suitable solvent and were studied with HPLC and TLC methods, and compared with standard material. Quantitative determination of silymarin was performed by spectrophotometry and HPLC using internal standard method. The effect of various solvents on the efficincy of extracting silymarin was also studied. Spectrophotometry results were found which only total amount of isomers could be determined by spectrophotometry while all components of silymarin mixture would be determined by HPLC. Silymarin (Roth Co.) used as the standard substance and alpha naphtol as internal standard one. The amount of silymarin in two domestic seed samples was 1.5% while it was 2.3% in an imported one. In a group of German made Ardeyhepan and Silymarin 140 von ct Sample tablets, 128 mg and 161 mg silymarin was observed respectively which was 28% and 15% more than proposed quantity.