一份2007年的考科蓝的系统综述指出,基于18个临床研究和1088名酒精性及/或病毒性肝炎(乙型、丙形)病人的数据,利用水飞蓟来治疗这些病人的好处值得商榷,而且缺乏高质量的证据来支持这种疗法。综述认为需要进行更多的高质量随机对照临床研究才可得出结论[13]。据英国癌症研究中心(英语:Cancer Research UK),互联网上出现不少声称水飞蓟能减缓某些癌症的宣传信息,但目前仍未有足够证据支持这些讲法[14](注意:由于生物利用度和有效成分浓度等因素,水飞蓟素和水飞蓟本身的效用或有不同)。
Darwin, Charles Robert. The Voyage of the Beagle. Vol. XXIX. The Harvard Classics. New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1909–14; Bartleby.com, 2001. www.bartleby.com/29/ (页面存档备份,存于互联网档案馆) [accessed 30 Sep 2016] Ch VI.
The Rise of Capitalism on the Pampas: The Estancias of Buenos Aires, 1785-1870, By Samuel Amaral (Cambridge University Press,2002) p. 129
"Charles Darwin, who visited the pampas while traveling around the world, refers to Cynara cardunculus as cardoon, differentiating it from the great thistle, which scientific designation does not mention, described by F. B. Head. The former was as high as a horse; the second, higher than the head of a horserider. In Far Away and Long Ago, William Henry Hudson mentions two types: the cardoon thistle, or wild artichoke, of a bluish or grey-greenish color, and the giant thistle, cardo asnal for the natives and Carduus marianum for botanists, with white and green leaves."
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Rambaldi A, Jacobs BP, Gluud C. Milk thistle for alcoholic and/or hepatitis B or C virus liver diseases. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2007, (4): CD003620. PMID 17943794. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD003620.pub3.
JW, Kendrick; J, Tucker; SA, Peoples. Nitrate poisoning in cattle due to ingestion of variegated thistle, Silybum marianum.. Journal of American Veterinary Medicine Association. 1955, 126 (934): 53–56. PMID 13221510.