EFFECT OF PROBIOTIC DAIRY PRODUCT , PREBIOTIC HO EY A D THEIR COMBI ATIO O DIFFERE T TYPES OF ULCERS I ALBI O RATS

Summary Lifestyle and eating habits are partly responsible for overall health status. The latest and most exciting stage in the evolution of intestinal-health products is the synergy between probiotics and prebiotics i.e., synbiotics which represents an interesting area of research. The present study verifies whether probiotics, prebiotics and synbiotics offer a better therapeutic alternative for treating different ulcer conditions like gastric ulcers induced by pylorus ligation model, duodenal ulcers induced by cysteamine and ulcerative colitis induced by 8% acetic acid. In gastric and duodenal ulcer models, the parameters monitored were acid volume, gastric pH, total acidity, free acidity, ulcer index and the in vivo antioxidant parameters lipid peroxidation, reduced glutathione, catalase and nitrite. In ulcerative colitis model, diarrhea, wet weight of the colon, activity score, gross mucosal inflammation, gross morphological disease score, crypt abscesses were studied. Myeloperoxidase activity of the mucosal scrapings of the duodenum and colon was estimated in duodenal and ulcerative colitis models. The results of the present study clearly show that probiotic dairy product, prebiotic honey and combination treatments offered a significant protection against both gastric and duodenal ulcers. The combination was more effective in reducing the severity of colitis when compared to probiotic dairy product and prebiotic honey alone. Whereas, probiotic dairy product offered more benefit against gastric and duodenal ulcers than prebiotic honey and combination.