Bioavailability augmentation of silymarin using natural bioenhancers: An in vivo pharmacokinetic study

Abstract

Pharmacokinetic studies were carried out in male and female rats to quantify silymarin as silybin (A+B) after the oral administration of various silymarin formulations combined with three bioenhancers, namely, lysergol, piperine, and fulvic acid, and compared with plain silymarin formulation (control). A non-compartmental analysis, model independent analysis, was utilized, and various pharmacokinetic parameters (Cmax, Tmax, and AUC0-t) were calculated individually for each treatment group, and the values were expressed as mean ± SEM (n = 6). Plasma samples obtained from the rats were analyzed for the concentration of silymarin through a validated RP-HPLC method and on the basis of data generated from the pharmacokinetic studies. Results indicated that the bioenhancers augmented pharmacokinetic parameters and bioavailability increased 2.4–14.5-fold in all the formulations compared with the control. The current work envisages the development of an industrially viable product that can be further subjected to clinical trials and scientifically supports the development of silymarin as a contemporary therapeutic agent with enhanced bioavailability and medicinal values.