Fig. 1. Average background-subtracted normalised Raman spectra for endoscopically assessed colonic mucosa which showed either a) endoscopic MH (black) or b) endoscopic inflammation (red).

Fig. 2. Plot of frequency of C=C (ν1) versus C-C stretching vibration (ν2) for beta-carotene isomers (black squares, values from [53]), colonic mucosa showing endoscopic MH (grey circle, our data), colonic mucosa showing endoscopic inflammation (red circle, our data), cancerous colon tissue (blue diamond, [21]), cancerous breast tissue (pink triangle, [22]), cancerous lung tissue (green triangle, [37]). Figure adapted from [53].

Fig. 3. Histogram displaying average Raman peak intensities, standard deviations and p values for endoscopically assessed colonic mucosa which showed either a) endoscopic MH (N=24, filled grey) or b) endoscopic inflammation (N=36, unfilled). No asterisk represents p > 0.10, a single asterisk * represents 0.10 ≥ p > 0.05 and two asterisks ** represent p ≤ 0.05. Abbreviations: Car = carotenoids; Myo = myoglobin, Oxy-Myo = oxy-myoglobin, Deoxy-Myo = deoxy-myoglobin, P-lipid = phospholipids.


Fig. 4. Histogram displaying average Raman peak intensities, standard deviations and p values for histologically assessed colonic mucosa which showed either a) histological healing (N=27, filled grey) or b) HA (N=33, unfilled). The same key and abbreviations as for Fig. 3. apply.

Fig. 5. Scatter plot of intensities of peaks 1, 3 and 15 for a) endoscopically assessed colonic mucosa which showed either endoscopic MH (open squares) or endoscopic inflammation (filled circles) and b) histologically assessed colonic mucosa which showed either histological healing (open squares) or HA (filled circles).