MANAGEMENT OF INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE AND EXPERIMENTAL MODELS ESTABLISHED FOR EVALUATION- AN UPDATE

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) include Ulcerative colitis (UC), an inflammatory disease of the large intestine and Crohn‟s disease (CD). Ulcerative colitis is ulcers form in the inner lining or mucosa of the colon or rectum, often resulting in diarrhea, blood, and pus. The use of conventional steroids, glucocorticoids TNF-α inhibitors are found highly effective in treating IBD but their use is associated with some adverse effects. Therefore, the importance of using natural products has increased, as they have interest in discovering efficient new drugs with less adverse effects. Natural drugs are desirable for the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases, such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. However, there are limited controlled evidences indicating the efficacy of traditional Chinese medicines, such as aloe vera gel, wheat grass juice, Boswellia serrata etc., in the treatment of UC. Many experimental models such as TNBS model, hapten induced colitis etc. are established for the evaluation of drugs in IBD. This review focuses on the management of IBD by using medicinal plants, synthetic drugs and methods established for the evaluation of drugs in IBD.