import re
text = [
"this is a figure ref (figure 7\xe2\x80\x9377)",
"this is multiple refs (figures 6\xe2\x80\x9328 and 6\xe2\x80\x9329)",
"this is a table ref (table 6\xe2\x80\x931)"
]
text = [re.sub(r'\s*\(\s*(?:table|figure)[^()]*\)', '', t) for t in text]
print(text)