Antioxidant activity and inhibitory effect of ethanolic extract of Ficus exasperata leaves on pro- oxidant induced hepatic and cerebral lipid peroxidation in albino rats in vitro

Oxidation of lipid has been found to be a crucial step in the pathogenesis of several diseased conditions. A good number of pro-oxidants are known to cause oxidative damage to biomolecules such as proteins, lipids and DNA. This study was designed to evaluate the protective effect and other antioxidant potentials of ethanolic extract of Ficus exasperata leaves against pro-oxidant [Iron (Fe2+),Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and Sodium nitroprusside (SNP)] induced lipid peroxidation in cerebral and hepatic tissues of albino rats. An aliquot of 100µl of clear supernatant of the tissue homogenates were incubated for 1hr at 370C in the presence of the extract with and without pro-oxidants, iron and hydrogen peroxide (final concentration 10µM), and sodium nitroprusside (final concentration 30µM) to determine the extent of lipid peroxidation. The phenol content, flavonoids content, ferric reducing ability, iron chelating properties, DPPH and ABTS scavenging abilities of the extract were also evaluated. The results shows that incubation of the tissue homogenates with the pro-oxidants caused significant (P