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Chapter-31 Development of a Radioprotective Drug from Ocimum sanctum

BOOK TITLE: Herbal Drugs: A Twenty First Century Perspective

Author
1. Devi P Uma
ISBN
9788180618505
DOI
10.5005/jp/books/10352_31
Edition
1/e
Publishing Year
2006
Pages
10
Author Affiliations
1. Jawaharlal Nehru Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Idgah Hills, Bhopal-462001, Madhya Pradesh, India
Chapter keywords
Ocimum sanctum, Mouse survival, Bone marrow protection, Antioxidant, Radioprotective drug development, Drug formulation, Chemical protectors

Abstract

More than 50 years of research has produced only one radioprotective drug, amifostine, approved for clinical application. The usefulness of this drug also is limited due to its cumulative toxicity and high cost. Investigations on the Indian medicinal plant Ocimum sanctum (Krishna tulasi) have demonstrated that an aqueous extract of its leaves gave significant protection against radiation lethality, hemopoietic stem cell death and chromosomal damage in mice, at very low nontoxic doses. The active principles are identified as the flavonoids orientin and vicenin. The optimum effective dose of the extract is 50 mg/kg body weight (less than 1/120th of its toxic dose), while that of the flavonoids is 50 µg/kg body weight in mice. The flavonoids also protected against prenatal irradiation induced chromosomal instability and cancer induction in adult mice. The extract and the flavonoids are good free radical scavengers and also elevate the cellular antioxidants, which seem to be the main mechanisms of protection in vivo. These studies have given hope of developing a cheap and viable alternative to the currently used radioprotective drug, amifostine.

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