The effect of 5, 10, 20, 40 and 80 mg/kg b. wt. of hydroalcoholic extract of
geriforte (an Ayurvedic herbal medicine) administered intraperitoneally was studied on the radiation-induced mortality in mice exposed to 10 Gy of gamma-radiation. Treatment of mice with different doses of
geriforte consecutively for 5 days before irradiation delayed the onset of mortality and reduced the symptoms of
radiation sickness when compared with the non-
drug treated irradiated controls. A maximum protection was observed for 10 mg/kg
geriforte, where a highest number of survivors were reported by 30 days post-irradiation and further experiments were carried out using this dose of
geriforte. The mice were treated with 10 mg/kg b. wt.
geriforte or double distilled water (DDW) and exposed to 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 Gy of gamma radiation and observed for the induction of symptoms of
radiation sickness and mortality up to 30 days post-irradiation. The
geriforte treatment protected the mice against the GI death as well as bone marrow deaths and the
dose reduction factor (DRF) was found to be 1.14. Toxicity study showed that
geriforte was non-toxic up to a dose of 4250 mg/kg, where no
drug-induced mortality was observed. The LD50 dose of
geriforte was found to be 4750 mg/kg b. wt. To understand the mechanism of action of
geriforte,
free radical scavenging activity of the
drug was evaluated.
Geriforte was found to scavenge *
OH, O2*-
ABTS*+ and NO* in a dose-dependent manner. Our study demonstrates that
geriforte is a good
radioprotective agent and the optimum protective dose of 10 mg/kg was 1/475th of the LD50 dose.