ABSTRACT
Phytochemicals are nonnutritive plant chemicals that have protective or disease-preventive properties. Plants produce these chemicals to protect themselves, but research has shown that they can also protect humans against disease. ere are more than a thousand known phytochemicals. Some of the important groups are alkaloids (caeine), carotenoids, avenoids (polyphenols), isoavones (phytoestrogens, genistein), organosuldes (glutathione; GSH), stylbenes (resveratrol), and phenolic acids (curcumin, ellagic acid). Recent investigations at the molecular and cellular level have elaborated some of the characteristics of phytochemicals that enable these compounds to attack a number of targets and fulll diverse functions including, under the right circumstances, acting as radiosensitizers.
