ahmedabad an extract from the ubiquitous household plant tulsi is found to protect one from harmful nuclear radiationsduring a war situation or in the event of a nuclear reactor leak the extracted phytochemicals from tulsi are now being turned into a drug at a gujarat facility gujarat liqui pharmacaps limited glpl in padra on the outskirts of vadodara city the drug will be indias indigenous defence against all kinds of radiation and even prove to be a boon for cancer patients to alleviate the side effects of radiotherapy treatment the human clinical trials are nearing completion at the advanced center for treatment research and education at the tata memorial centre in mumbai as soon as the trials are over the drug will be made available to the general public scientists at the institute of nuclear medicines and allied sciences inmas at defence research and development organization drdo have been experimenting with this medicinal plant for years which is known to possess antioxidant and immunostimulatory properties the tulsi extract was found to be protecting living cells against the deleterious effects of an ionizing radiation in medical use the phytochemical extracts from medicinal plant according to drdo officials can provide protection to healthy cells in cancer patients during differential radiotherapy while it allows the therapy to kill tumour cells in the body the radioprotective medicine from the tulsi plant is being manufactured at glpl in a limited quantity in the capsule form the human trials of the drug is on the verge of completion and can also be administered to patients who undergo radiotherapy a senior scientist at drdo dr rajesh arora who is associated with the project the project is carried under dr william selvamurthy the chief controller of research and development of drdo delhi arora adds the phytochemicals present in three other high altitude plants and fruits himalayan may apple podophyllum seabuckthorn hippophae and the cosmonauts plant rhodiola have also been found to have similar radio protective properties and are also being turned into medicine at this facility in drdo