It is a well-known fact of life that exposure to UV light,
especially the UVA component, festers skin disorders like melanoma and
non-melanoma skin cancers. Superficial remedies such as sunscreens are
effective only to a limited extent. This realization has led to
investigation of new methods to protect the skin from photo-damaging
effects of solar UV radiation, or "photo-carcinogenesis" as it is
called. Recent years have seen considerable interest in identifying
naturally-occurring botanicals, such as silymarin, with anti-oxidant and
anti-inflammatory properties, and which exhibit anti-carcinogenic and
anti-mutagenic functionality.
It is in this light that the
medicinal benefits of milk thistle have been a subject of intense
research by scientists. Though its value as...