A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW ON FICUS CARICA L. - AN UNEXPLORED MEDICINAL PLANT

and laxative effects. Fruit juice of F. carica mixed with honey is used to treat haemorrhage.Thus the review attempts to shed light on all the available literature on the Ficus carica L. with reference to its traditional uses, chemical and phytoconstituents,physicochemical properties, and summing up of its various nutritional and therapeutic benefits. Effect on Alzheimer’s disease: Experiments were performed to assess the effect of dietary supplementation with figs on memory, anxiety, and learning ability, and study results showed that the mice fed with control diet without figs with substantial memory deficits, increased anxiety-related activity, and motor coordination compared to the wild-type control mice fed the same diet, and the mice fed on 4% fig diet supplement 34-35 .

carbohydrates, amino acids and other phytochemicals. F.carica was used as a cure-all in systems of medicine such as Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy. Studies revealed that F.carica has antioxidant, antimicrobial, anticancer, anti-mutagenic, anti-angiogenic, anti-inflammatory, antidepressant, antiplatelet, antipyretic, immunological, dermatological, hepatoprotective, antidiabetic, hypolipidemic, nootropic, antispasmodic, antidiarrheal, nephroprotective and laxative effects. Fruit juice of F. carica mixed with honey is used to treat haemorrhage.Thus the review attempts to shed light on all the available literature on the Ficus carica L. with reference to its traditional uses, chemical and phytoconstituents,physicochemical properties, and summing up of its various nutritional and therapeutic benefits.

Introduction:-
Ficus belongs to one of the largest angiosperms genera ( "groups of plants"), that have more than 800 plant species, many of which are epiphytes or shrubs that grow in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world 1 4 . In India, around 115 species of Ficus are distributed throughout the country and most variety of species is found in the North-East regions, among them Meghalaya has the highest number of species and may be considered as hotspot region in India 5 .  Latex of the tree is used as antihelminthic, soothes bee sting and corns, piles and chronic ulcer, skin disease and the leafy latex is used to treat stomach cancer.
Leaves are used in anaemia, bronchitis, diabetes, haemorrhoids, sedative and relieve menstrual pain. Leaf juice mixed with goat milk is used for treating jaundice.
Fruits have a large number of medicinal benefits. It is used in the treatment of cardiac troubles, constipation, eye vision problem, hepatitis and other liver diseases, mouth cavity diseases, weakness. The decoction of fruit with honey is used to treat cough and abdominal pain. Dried fruits are used in fever. Dried fruit powder is also mixed with tea for its nutritional benefits. Unripe fruits are eaten as vegetables. Roots are used as a tonic for leucoderma and ringworm.

Therapeutic Properties of Different Parts of the Plant: Anticancer Activity:
In addition to polyphenols, figs also contain benzaldehyde and coumarin compounds that have anticancer activity. Research showed that benzaldehyde was successfully used to treat human carcinomas in the last stage. Benzaldehyde can convert the cancer cells into keratinized, normal squamous cells. Coumarins have also been used to treat prostate cancer. In vivo studies of extracts of fig have been shown highest anti-tumour activities. The proliferation of different cancer cell lines was found to be prevented by an acyl moiety with very small quantities of steryl and oleyl, isolated from F.carica latex 13 .

Antioxidant Activity:
The presence of several phenolic compounds in F. Carica has multiple physiological functions. Some effects of these compounds on human health are advantageous because they act as antioxidant in a number of ways: reducing agents, hydrogen donors, free radical scavengers, singlet oxygen quenchers and many more. For total phenolics, complete flavonoids, anti-oxidant potential and anthocyanin profile, six variations of commercial figs (F.carica) with various skin colours (Black, Red, Yellow and Green) were examined. In fruits with the highest polyphenol, flavonoid and anthocyanin content, antioxidant potential was found to be the highest [14][15][16][17] .
Hepatoprotective Activity: F.carica shade dried leaves petroleum ether extract in rats treated with Rifampicin at the 50 mg/kg dose has been tested for hepatoprotective activity. A substantial reversal in biochemical, histological and functional changes in rats was observed, suggesting possible hepatoprotective activity of F. carica over Rifampicin treatment [17][18] .

Antidiabetic Activity:
Studies showed that of F.carica leaf extract has a significant hypoglycaemic effect on Streptozotocin (oral and intraperitoneal) induced diabetic rats. The extract also prevents weight loss in diabetic rats and maintains insulin level in blood, which greatly alters the index of survival. Therefore, F.carica leaf extract can be used in the treatment of hyperglycaemia [19][20] .

Hypolipidemic Activity:
The F.carica leaf extract lowers the overall cholesterol and total cholesterol/HDL ratio 21 .

Antipyretic Activity:
Ethanolic extract of F.carica is responsible for a significant dose-dependent decline in body temperature and yeast provoked high body temperature at a dose of 100,200 and 300 mg/kg. Compared to the standard antipyretic agent, Paracetamol (150 mg/kg body weight, p.o), and the effect of F.carica extract can be extended up to 5 hours after drug administration 22 .

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Antifungal Activity: Studies showed that figs possess antifungal activities. A low molecular weight protein isolated from the freshly collected latex of F.carica is responsible for its antifungal activity. 23 .

Antibacterial Activity:
The Based on this, its application in the area of medicine, food, and drugs has a potential future [25][26] .

Anti-mutagenic Activity:
Investigation was done on the anti-mutagenic activity of F.carica plant extract on environmental xenobiotics. Plant extract showed a decrease in the mutation levels by N-metil-N"-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG) in Nicia faba cells, mutation of chlorophyll in Arabidopsis thaliana and NAF induced mutability in rat marrow cells. The extract decreases the xenotoxicity of environmental mutagens [27][28] .

Antispasmodic activity:
The antispasmodic effect was investigated using the aqueous-ethanolic extract of F.carica. Studies showed the presence of spasmolytic activity in thr ripe dried fruit possibly mediated through the activation of K+ ATP channels 29 .

Anti-inflammatory effect:
Inflammation can be defined as a natural response of the body against microorganisms and toxic materials. Different types of fig branches were taken for examining their ability to remove free radicals and hinder inflammatory reactions. Investigation revealed that the highest amount of phenolic content was present in the ethyl acetate fraction which has highest free radical scavenging activity. Another study was carried using different types of leaf extract for checking the anti-inflammatory effect and the study demonstrated that ethanolic extract of the leaves has maximum anti-inflammatory activity [17][18] .

Effect on sperm parameters:
Leaf extracts of F.carica were taken to investigate their effect on sperm parameters and testis intoxicated and the results showed that the leaf extracts can improve the sperm count, non-progressive motility of spermatozoa, and gonadosomatic index in treated testes 30 .

Diuretic Activity:
Ficus carica L. ethanolic extract (100 and 200mg/kg of body weight) cause a rise in urine volume, cation and anion excretion. The reference diuretic used was Furosemide. Based aforementioned observations, it was concluded that a marked diuresis occurs when rats were acutely treated with F.carica 31 .

Promoter of Bone Density:
Figs are rich in calcium, a mineral that helps keep bones strong and safe. Moreover, potassium in fig will overcome the increased urinary calcium loss induced by a high salt diet so that bones do no longer weaken rapidly and preventing thinning of bones at a fast rate 32 .

Immunomodulatory effect:
The immunomodulatory effect was evaluated and the study results indicated that extract administration of F.carica significantly improved the response of both cellular and humoral antibody responses 33 .

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Effect on Alzheimer's disease: Experiments were performed to assess the effect of dietary supplementation with figs on memory, anxiety, and learning ability, and study results showed that the mice fed with control diet without figs with substantial memory deficits, increased anxiety-related activity, and motor coordination compared to the wild-type control mice fed the same diet, and the mice fed on 4% fig diet supplement [34][35] .

Scope for Future Research:
Many important biological activities of F.carica have been documented, which can be further studied as a treatment for the future. During phytochemical assessment of F.carica, several plant metabolites have been isolated. But most of the research on phytochemicals was carried out with leaves and fruits of fig tree while the phenolic profile of stem and root remains neglected. The vast use of F.carica as traditional medicine and investigated pharmacological activities indicated that there is a huge scope for further estimation of phytochemicals. Future research in the above areas will contribute to the creation of clinical applications for F. carica in some contemporary remedies.