Milk thistle fruits are included in a few monotea preparations and tea mixtures of the indication digestive/liver–bile disorders. More commonly, however, the drug is taken in the form of capsules, tablets, coated tablets, and granules containing dry extracts. Liquid preparations are also commercially available.
Milk thistle – what dose?
The mean daily dose is 12-15 g of the fruit, unless otherwise prescribed. The mean daily dose of preparations from milk thistle fruits should be 200-400 mg of silymarin, calculated as silibinin.
Milk thistle: preparation astea.
To achieve a liver-protective effect, making your own tea is not suitable. When tea preparations are taken, only a small amount of the silymarin gets into the tea, so that the dose for the liver-protective effect is not reached in the process. In this case, standardized tea preparations with fixed silymarin content are preferable.
However, for digestive problems, a specially prepared tea may be useful. For this purpose, pour 3 g of the crushed fruit (1 teaspoon corresponds to about 3.5 g) with boiling water or prepare with cold water and boil briefly. After 10-30 minutes, the decoction can be passed through a tea strainer.
Contraindications
Currently, there are no known interactions with other remedies and contraindications.
Special notes
Milk thistle fruit tea extracts taste bland and greasy. The addition of 5% fennel fruit can enhance the taste.
The fruits should be kept dry, cool and protected from light.
