Identification Of Silymarin In Echinopus tenuisectus Family Compositae

This study emphasized on the detection and identification of silymarin (Silybinin) Flavonoid in a newly studied, wild Iraqi plant, named Echinopus tenuisectus of Compositae family. The medicinal importance of silymarin on the one hand, and the absence of any phytochemical investigation on tenuisectus specie of Echinopus genus on the other hand, acquired this study its importance. Silymarin was identified in the plant extract of both, the aerial part’s and the seed’s extracts, by two chromatographic methods, first Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) using TLC ready made Gf254 plates, UV detector at 254 nm, and three different solvent systems in which the Rf value of the standard silymarin matched with the Rf value of the plant extract silymarin. HPLC was the other chromatographic method that proved the presence of silymarin in the plant extract by identical retention times. The result indicated that the silymarin content in the seed extract was higher than that in the plant extract of the aerial parts.