This review deals with potential and possibly primary therapeutics that, through insight into the inflammatory cascade, result in more rational treatment principles replacing the classical therapy of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), i.e. Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). These new therapies might be useful for IBD patients, especially since the 'classical therapy' with agents like glucocorticoids, sulfasalazine, mesalazine, azathioprine, 6-mercaptopurine, cyclosporin and methotrexate is often only moderately effective and may have important side-effects. Controlled trials of the novel agents mentioned in this review have not yet been performed, however.