Protective effect of quercetin against acetic acid induced inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) like symptoms in rats: possible morphological and biochemical alterations.

BACKGROUND Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is characterized by most common symptoms such as rectal bleeding. Lack of specific, curative treatments tempted us to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of quercetin against acetic acid induced IBD like symptoms. METHODS Animals were randomly divided into five groups (n = 6): naive, control, sulphasalazine and quercetin, and were pretreated for three days. Colitis was induced by intra-rectal administration of 3% acetic acid. RESULTS Pretreatment with sulphasalazine or quercetin significantly attenuated the biochemical and morphological alterations in the colon induced by acetic acid in rats. CONCLUSIONS The findings of the study suggest the possible role of quercetin as therapeutics in IBD.