Abstract:
The small intestine is a barrier between the internal medium of the body and the environment. In the small intestine, the processes of digestion of polymer nutrients finish and the final stages of absorption of monomeric nutrients formed during digestion take place. Different researchers carry out investigation of these processes in different conditions: in vitro, in vivo and in situ. Each of the methods has its advantages and its limitations. In addition to the methodological conditions of the study, both the components of food and related components, such as herbal preparations, influence the results of digestive and absorption processes. Recently, milk thistle fruits is widely used to correct liver problems due to its membranotropic effect, which joins with the main component of milk thistle fruits - silymarin, However, in addition to silymarin, milk thistle fruits contains many other biologically active substances that can affect not only the processes in the liver, but also on the digestive and absorptive processes in the small intestine. Therefore, in our own experiments on the small intestine of rats, we investigated effects of water- and fat-soluble fractions of milk thistle fruits, and the total dried water-alcohol extract of milk thistle fruits on the processes of digestion and absorption of nutrients. Own data obtained in vitro and in vivo experiments are discussed.
