Objective To explore the anti-inflammatory active ingredients and mechanisms of action of Lycii fructus.Methods Network pharmacology and molecular docking techniques were used to screen the main components and targets of Lycii fructus with anti-inflammatory effects. Combined with cell experiments, the anti-inflammatory activity of Lycii fructus extract was evaluated using the RAW264.7 inflammatory cell model. The Pearson correlation coefficient method was used to analyze the correlation between the main components and inflammatory factors.Results A total of 34 main components and 123 common target genes of Lycii fructus were screened through online databases such as TCMSP, Uniprot, and OMIM. Core targets, including IL-6, TP53, JUN, TNF, AKT1, and IL1B, were identified through the protein-protein interaction network. Key components such as quercetin, β-sitosterol, daidzein, stigmasterol, and atropine were obtained from "drug-component-target" network. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis revealed cancer signaling pathway, lipid signaling pathway, and atherosclerosis signaling pathway. Molecular docking results showed that β-sitosterol and stigmasterol exhibited relatively low binding energies and strong affinities with key targets. Cell experiments further confirmed a negative correlation between the concentrations of quercetin, β-sitosterol, and stigmasterol in Lycii fructus extract and the production of inflammatory factors TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β.Conclusion The potential anti-inflammatory active ingredients in Lycii fructus are quercetin, β-sitosterol, and stigmasterol, which may exert anti-inflammatory effects by regulating core targets such as AKT1 and IL1B.