Free radical accumulation in the body will cause oxidative stress damages including the renal damage. Schisandrae Sphenantherae Fructus (Schisandra), a traditional Chinese herbal medicine, has been used throughout the world. Anwulignan, a monomer extracted from Schisandra, has been shown in our previous studies to possess antioxidant and protective effects on the liver, brain and spleen damages in the aging mice. However, its effect on the renal damage caused by aging is not clear. This study showed that anwulignan could significantly increase the kidney index, the creatinine clearance, the activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase; reduce the urinary protein concentration, the serum urea nitrogen and creatinine content, the content of malondialdehyde and 8-hydroxylated deoxyguanosine in the renal tissue; and improve the renal tissue damage. Moreover, anwulignan increased the production of Nrf2, HO-1 and NQO1 proteins and decreased the production level of Keap1 protein in the renal tissue in the d-galactose induced aging mice. These results suggest that anwulignan significantly alleviates the renal damage by its antioxidant effect through regulating the production of Nrf2/ARE pathway-related proteins in the renal tissue in the d-galactose induced aging mice. BACKGROUND The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10068-021-00951-7.