Anti‐inflammatory Activities and Mechanisms of New Compounds Isolated from the Fruits of Foeniculum vulgare Mill.

Forty‐nine compounds, including six previously unknown together with forty‐three known ones, were isolated from the fruits of Foeniculum vulgare Mill. Their structures were elucidated using high‐resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HR‐ESI‐MS), infrared spectroscopy (IR), ultraviolet‐visible spectroscopy (UV), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and electronic circular dichroism (ECD) methods. All isolates were evaluated their anti‐inflammatory activity. The results indicated that compounds 1, 6, 35 and 45 inhibit lipopolysaccharide(LPS)‐induced nitric oxide production in RAW 264.7 macrophages with IC50 values of 17.13 ± 0.74, 14.40 ± 0.54, 112.13 ± 2.08 and 77.02 ± 3.62 μg/mL, respectively. Moreover, the potential targets of the four active ingredients were explored through network pharmacology, revealing that SRC, TP53, AKT1, and PIK3CA may serve as key anti‐inflammatory targets. To confirm the potential binding mode, molecular docking was employed, which demonstrated that all active targets except SRC exhibited favorable binding energy with compound 35. Additionally, the anti‐inflammatory activities of compounds 1‐6 were first observed in this experiment.