Hepcidin,the pivotal regulator of systemic iron metabolism,plays a critical role in multiple diseases including anemia of chronic disease (ACD),iron-refractory iron-deficiency anemia (IRIDA) and hemochromatosis.Currently,there is no prototypical drug-like hepcidin inhibitor available.We hypothesized that bioactive extracts from Chinese medicinal plants may be efficacious in the inhibition of hepcidin.To test this,we measured the level of hepcidin expression in cultured cells treated with sixteen different medicinal plant extracts,all of which are used to treat anemia-related disorders in traditional Chinese medicine.