1Ficus is a large genus of woody trees, shrubs, vines and epiphytes widely distributed throughout the tropics of both hemispheres with
about 850 species of which approximately 65 species are found in India. 2 The species, Ficus racemosa Linn. syn. F. glomerata Roxb. (Vern. Gular) is large sized spreading tree commonly known as ‘Cluster-fig’ found throughout the greater part of India. The stem bark is antiseptic, antipyretic and used in the treatment of various skin diseases, ulcers, diabetes, piles, dysentery, asthma, gonorrhea, menorrhagia, leucorrhea, hemoptysis and urinary diseases. Fruits are a good remedy for visceral obstruction and also useful in regulating diarrhea and constipation. 3 A uterine tonic prepared using the aqueous extract of fruits RAD001 purchase was found to show effect similar to oxytocin. 4 Antiulcer, hypoglycemic and antioxidant activities from fruits have been reported. 5 Antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, Selleckchem Lapatinib antifungal, analgesic, antipyretic, antibacterial, antidiarrheal, hepatoprotective, hypotensive and various other activities of the leaves have also been evaluated. 6 and 7 A glance at literature revealed the isolation of triterpenoids,
steroids, coumarins and phenolic esters from fruits, latex, leaves, heartwood and stem bark 5 and only one reference reporting the isolation of β-sitosterol from root bark. 8 Since the plant is medicinally important, therefore, the present work with the object to identify the secondary metabolites in the F. racemosa root bark and investigate the antioxidant capacity of root bark and heartwood was undertaken. Melting points were recorded in open glass capillaries in Toshniwal apparatus. The IR spectra were recorded on a Shimadzu 8400S FTIR spectrometer using KBr pellets. 1H and 13C NMR spectra were recorded at 300 MHz
and 75 MHz respectively on Jeol AL 300 MHz spectrometer found using CDCl3 and DMSO-d6 as solvents and TMS as the internal reference. Mass spectra were recorded on Waters Xevo Q-TOF spectrometer. The fractionation was performed in Chromatographic column using silica gel 60–120 mesh (Merck) and thin layer chromatograms were conducted on Merck silica gel G plates. In general, spots were visualized under UV light as also spraying ceric ammonium sulfate followed by heating at 100 °C. The in vitro antioxidant activity experiments were monitored by UV–visible spectrophotometer (Pharmaspec-1700 Shimadzu). Silica gel 60–120 mesh (Merck) was used for column chromatography. Silica gel 60 F254 precoated aluminium sheets (0.2 mm, Merck) were employed for TLC. DPPH was purchased from Himedia while ascorbic acid, phosphate buffer, potassium ferrocyanide and trichloroacetic acid from Sigma Aldrich (India). The botanical material of F. racemosa Linn., Moraceae was collected from University of Rajasthan Campus, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India in March 2010 and authenticated by Herbarium of the Department of Botany, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur where a voucher specimen (No. RUBL 19764) is deposited.