Nutritional Supplements act as sources of radiation protectors

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Nutritional supplements, including trace elements and several plant materials like soya and amla, have been found to act as excellent sources of radiation protectors, radiation biologists say.

Nutraceuticals as exemplified by flavonoids and isoflavones and nutritional factors such as vitamin E have been demonstrated to have radioprotective properties, Dr V Srinivasan of Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute, Bethedsa, US, said at the International Conference on `Recent Trends in Radiation Biology' at BARC here.

"Low toxicity of nutraceuticals and nutritional factors is an advantage over well-known radioprotectors such as amifostine," he said, adding the Institute is working on new molecules like 5-AED and Vitamin E and gemistein are proving to be "very good" radioprotectors .