Milk Thistle Seeds (Silybum Marianum)

Milk thistle is native to the Mediterranean and grows across the whole southern Europe. The flower, the root, the leaves and the seeds are the edible parts of the plant, but nowadays it seems that the seeds have numerous properties. Milk thistle was known in ancient Greece and it was used for its properties. Ancient Greeks used its decoction to treat any kind of melancholy. Furthermore, Dioscorides recommended “silybum” (milk thistle in ancient Greek language) for healing wounds, body’s detoxification and women’s milk production.

Nowadays, milk thistle seeds seems to have literally medical properties and there is a huge scientific research on it, making it one of the most researched plants.This is the reason that this herb belongs to the category of superfoods. Modern herbal medicine suggests milk thistle as the main remedy to protect the liver from infections, alcohol’s consumption side effects and chemotherapy. Moreover, this superfood can be consumed as tonic of the brain and memory, as soothing to the runny nose, for pleurisy and psoriasis. Furthermore, its anticancer and neuroprotective properties have been recently discovered. At last milk thistle protects heart due to cholesterol’s reduction that it causes.

Milk thistle is not used in cooking. The consumption of its seeds beverage is a gift to your body. Moreover, milk thistle seeds can be roasted and can be consumed instead of coffee.