Anti-Inflammatory and antiviral effects of water-soluble crude extract from Phragmites australis in vitro

Phragmites australis [P. australis], a world wide distributed wetland grass, is traditionally used as food-making helper and spice in China. The pharmacological effect of this plant is poorly understood. Here, we demonstrated that lipopolysaccharide [LPS]-induced production of inflammatory mediators nitric oxide [NO] and reactive oxygen species [ROS], and the pro-inflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor-a [TNF-alpha] and interleukin-lp [IL-1P] in RAW264.7 macrophage were significantly inhibited by the crude extract. The inflammation pertinent signaling extra cellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 [Erkl/2], P38MAPK, C-Jun and NF-kappaB [NF-KB] activated by LPS could be dramatically inhibited by this extract. It also remarkably inhibited bovine herpes virus type 1 [BoHV-1] replication in MDBK cells. Taken together, here, for the first time we provided P. australis