Abstract
Fruit rind of Garcinia pedunculata is one of the important medicinal plant and a condiment used in Indian kitchen. In spite of many medicinal properties ascribed to this species, less of pharmacological studies are carried out on this species. The objective of present study was to determine the quality standards of the fruit rind followed by evaluation of nephroprotective activity of aqueous extract in cisplatin induced nephrotoxicity. Macro-microscopic, physico-chemical, preliminary phytochemical and HPTLC studies were carried out following pharmacopoeial procedures. On 7th days an hour after treatment with group specific drugs, cisplatin 20mg/kg was injected intraperitonially to all groups except normal control mice. Nephrotoxicity was assessed by serum biochemical, antioxidant and histological changes in kidney after 72h of cisplatin injection. Pharmacopoeial tests revealed authenticity and quality indicating standards for the fruit rind. Single intraperitonial injection of cisplatin significantly elevated serum urea, creatinine and lipid peroxidation in kidney tissue compared to the control group. The drug has exhibited necrotic changes in the tubular epithelium, edematous changes in the interstitial tissue and focal cell infiltration. These changes were significantly reduced with AFGP administration and considerably reversed the histological changes caused by cisplatin injection.