English: Figure 2. Laurel extract treatment protects against colonic shortening in DSS-treated mice. Wild type mice (C57BL/6J) were given free access to distilled drinking water (no tx, n=3) or distilled water containing 3.5% dextran sodium sulfate (DSS, n=6) for 5 days. Once per day, either normal saline solution (DSS, n=3 and no tx, n=3) or an aqueous extract of Laurel tea (200 µL) (DSS + Laurel, n=3) was administered to animals by gavage. On day 5 animals were humanely sacrificed, colons resected from the ileocecal junction to the distal rectum and measured. Error bars represent standard deviations of mean values. p-values were calculated using a Student’s t-Test. p-values ≤ 0.05 are considered statistically significant.