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The gastrointestinal (GI) system has rapidly proliferating and differentiating cells, which make it one of the most radiosensitive organs in the body. Exposure to high dose of ionising radiation (IR) during radiotherapy may generate a variety of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) including radicals, cause some side effects such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, pain, ulceration, mal-absorption etc. Irradiation disrupts GI system by damaging proliferating stem cells of the crypts that alters the histology and physiology of intestine. Radiation damage reflects the qualitative and quantitative changes in intestinal epithelial stem cells like enterocytes, enteroendocrine cells, goblet cells and Paneth cells. The damaging effects of radiation to bio-molecules and cellular structures can alter gene signalling cascades and grounds genomic instability, protein modifications, cell senescence and cell death. The signalling pathways of GI tract includes Wnt, BMP, Hedgehog, PTEN/PI3K and Notch plays an important role in self-renewal of intestinal stem cells (ISCs) and maintaining the balance between self-renewal and differentiation of ISCs. Various radiation countermeasures including radioprotectors and mitigators are under development phase globally but still not approved for clinical applications during any radiation emergencies. In view of above, present review highlights cellular and molecular interruptions of GI system due to acute and chronic GI radiation injury, role of radioprotectors in signalling cascade modulations in GI epithelium and involvement of ISC markers in radioprotection.

Medicinal plants are used in traditional system of medicine to treat various diseases and many of these plants have been evaluated for their different pharmacological activities. Ziziphus mauritiana(ZM) (Rhamnaceae) is found wild and cultivated in many parts of India, Burma and Srilanka. Seeds of Ziziphus mauritianahave been reported to have sedative-hypnotic, hypotensive, antihypoxic, antihyperlipidemic and hypothermic activities. It is reported to contain minerals, alkaloids, flavonoids, sterols, tannins and saponins. Traditional medicine using herbal drugs exists in every part of the world. The major areas are Chinese, Indian and European traditions. The philosophies of these traditional medicines have some resemblance to each other but differ widely from modern western medicine. In view of the progress of western medicine not only new synthetic drugs but also herbal drugs have to fulfill the international requirements on quality, safety and efficacy. Herbal drugs have the advantage of being available for patients in the geographical area of the special traditional medicine. The development procedure of herbal drugs for world-wide use has to be different from that of synthetic drugs.

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