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The development of effective antiviral drugs against hepatitis C virus (HCV) continues to be needed, since neither vaccines nor broadly effective therapeutic agents are available. HCV RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (NS5B) is strictly required for viral replication and thus represents an attractive target. Here, aqueous extracts from five traditional Chinese medicines were tested for their ability to inhibit NS5B activity by reporter assays using cell-based NS5B activity detecting systems. Among them, aqueous extract from Fructus Ligustri Lucidi exhibited a promising result, dose-dependent inhibition of the luciferase activity, an indicator of intracellular NS5B activity (p<0.001), in the absence of cytotoxicity. Further Quantitative RT-PCR assays and Western blot analysis showed aqueous extract from Fructus Ligustri Lucidi inhibited intracellular NS5B-catalyzed RNA synthesis dose-dependently (p<0.001) without affecting …