Effect of Sphaeranthus indicus ethanol extract on tissue antioxidant activity in gentamicin induced nephrotoxic rats JESSY ELIZABETH MATHEW 1 *, ANAND MANTRI 1 , S.D. VACHALA 1 , K.K.SRINIVASAN 1 , VINIT MOVALIYA 2 1 Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences Manipal University Manipal 576104, India 2 Department of Pharmacognosy Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences Manipal University Manipal 576104, India *corresponding author: phone: +91820 2922482 ext. 138, fax : +91820 2571998, e-mail: jessyjamesmathew@yahoo.co.in Summary The purpose of the present study is to investigate whether the alcoholic extract of Sphaer- anthus indicus could decrease the intensity of toxicity in albino rats. Gentamicin at a dose of 80mg/kg body weight was administered intraperitonially to albino male Wistar rats for 8 days. Then another set of animals were given the alcoholic extracts of S indicus along with gentamicin treatment. The antioxidant levels, serum creatinine, serum urea etc were analyzed. The extracts could significantly decrease the gentamicin induced nephrotoxicity as inferred from the tissue antioxidant status in the drug administered animals. Remark- able change was observed in serum creatinine and urea levels. Lipid peroxidation in the kidney and liver tissues was also considerably reduced in S indicus extract treated animals. The nephrotoxic rats showed lower activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase, gluta- thione transferase and reduced glutathione content in the liver and kidney which were restored to normal levels by treatment with S indicus extract. The increased levels of lipid peroxidation in nephrotoxic rats were reverted back to normal levels after the treatment with S indicus ethanol extract. These results suggest that it has protective effect against gentamicin induced nephrotoxicity which may be attributed to its antioxidant potential. Key words: antioxidant, Asteraceae, free radical oxidative stress, gentamicin- induced renal dam- age, nephrotoxicity, Sphaeranthus indicus