Investigation of effect of pepper salt on ulcerative colitis in rats

Ulcerative colitis (UK) is a chronic and recurrent inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract that is an important public health problem. Persistence of inflammation and disruption of the intestinal barrier are the main histopathologic problems of UK. For these reasons, changes in the colon's mucosal structure and the epithelium's erosions occur. Pepper salt is the local spice of Acıpayam district of Denizli province. It contains many herbs with antioxidant properties. In this study, the possible protective effect of pepper salt on the large intestine tissue in UK was investigated at the light microscope level. For this purpose, 4 groups of 10 male rats were formed: the control (Group 1), the acetic acid induced UK group (Group 2), the pepper salt given group (Group 3), and the pepper salt given UK formed group (Group 4). Group 3 and 4 rats were given pepper salt by gavage for 7 weeks. At the end of the period, the large intestine tissues were stained with hematoxylin & eosin (H&E) for the general histological structure, alcian blue (AB) for acidic mucosubstances, and toluidine blue (TB) for mast cell count. The slides were examined with a light microscope and photographed. In the colon epithelium of group 4 by H&E histochemistry; less damage/erosion on the luminal surface, and less inflammatory cell migration and hemorrhage were observed. In AB histochemical staining results, there was generally no significant difference in the staining intensity of the acidic mucosubstances in the goblet cells of the colon glands of all groups. In the mast cell count results, higher increase was determined in group 4 compared to group 2, and lesser increase was determined in group 3 compared to group 1. As a result, degenerative changes in structure of the colon were observed in groups with UK. The determination of a higher increase in the number of mast cells in group 4 was found to be significant since these cells have an immune system-inducing role. However, this study, which is a preliminary study, needs to be supported by investigating with different parameters. Keywords: Ulcerative colitis, Pepper salt, Mucosubstance, Mast cell