Journal of International Society for Food Bioactives Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods Review J. Food Bioact. 2020;10:53–63 Total phenolic content, free radical scavenging capacity, and anti- cancer activity of silymarin Uyory Choea, Monica Whenta*, Yinghua Luob and Liangli Yua aDepartment of Nutrition and Food Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA bCollege of Food Science and Engineering, National Engineering Research Center for Fruit and Vegetable Processing, Ministry of Educa- tion, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China *Corresponding author: Monica Whent, Department of Nutrition and Food Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA. Tel: +1 301 4054521; E-mail:
[email protected] DOI: 10.31665/JFB.2020.10227 Received: June 19, 2020; Revised received & accepted: June 29, 2020 Citation: Choe, U., Whent, M., Luo, Y., and Yu, L. (2020). Total phenolic content, free radical scavenging capacity, and anti-cancer activity of silymarin. J. Food Bioact. 10: 53–63. Abstract Milk thistle (Silybum marianum) seeds are a good source of dietary polyphenols. The bioactive component of milk thistle seeds, silymarin, contains flavonolignans including silybin A, silybin B, isosilybin A, isosilybin B, sily- christin, isosilychristin, and silydiain along with the flavonol taxifolin. Silymarin is used traditionally as a natural herbal medicine with minimal side effects. Structurally, each silymarin component possesses phenolic hydroxyl groups and thus works as an antioxidant. In addition to free radical scavenging capacities, silymarin’s anti-cancer activities were reported for many different types of cancers including bladder, breast, colon, gastric, kidney, lung, oral, ovarian, prostate, and skin. The current review will discuss silymarin’s chemical components, total phenolic content, free radical scavenging capacities, and anti-cancer activities.