A Review on Antimicrobial Activity of Silymarin

Silymarin and its flavonolignan isomers, silybin, isosilybin, dehydrosilybin, silychristin, silydianin, and a few flavonoids mainly taxifolin, have been subjected to a variety of antimicrobial investigations due to extensive traditional uses and low side eects. Antimicrobial activities for silymarin and active seed extracts of Silybum marianum against dierent bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites have been reported in recent years. The sound results for antimicrobial effect of silymarin make it a good candidate to synergeticly enhance the inhibitory activity of existing antimicrobial agents. Moreover, dierent studies have been done to increase the antimicrobial activity of silymarin, including synthesis of dierent chemical derivatives to increase its water solubility as well as synthesis of silymarin-loaded nanoliposomes to increase its antimicrobial activity. This review aims to summarize previous antimicrobial studies of silymarin in regard to its application in the future studies as an alternative natural antimicrobial agent.