TNF and colitis: Also in the AOM colitis-associated cancer model, the researchers found that silymarin, the active ingredient of silymarin, significantly downregulated interleukin-6 (IL-6), that interleukin-1beta (IL-1β) and TNF-α could act as prophylactic agents for colitis-associated cancers, and that silymarin prevented colitis-associated tumorigenesis in mice by inhibiting IL-6/STAT3 signaling pathway (Zheng et al., 2018).