Antioxidant and renoprotective activities of Ficus racemosa Linn. stem bark: Bioactivity guided fractionation study

Ethanolic extract of Ficus racemosa [FRE] was subjected to bioactivity guided fractionation by steady state and kinetic methods using nanosecond pulse radiolysis and stopped-flow spectrophotometer. HPLC fingerprinting and other antioxidant studies revealed that quantitative difference in FRE and its fractions were insignificant. Hence FRE was chosen for the evaluation of renoprotective study in mice using ischemia/reperfusion injury. Pretreatment of FRE (50 and 100 mg/kg) restored the serum biomarkers and tissue antioxidant status to near normal levels, which were altered in ischemic group. Further, HPLC studies revealed that FRE contains gallic acid (6.18 mg/g) as major constituent and it is responsible for observed beneficial effects.