Abstract: Objective: Astragali Radix (AR) is a traditional Chinese medicinal herb that has been reported to have both medicinal and dietary applications. In this study, fermentation with Lactiplantibacillus plantarum NX-1 was employed to enhance the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of AR, while also investigating its influence on the composition of AR. Methods: The enhancement of fermentation on antioxidative and anti-inflammatory activities in AR was assessed using in vitro free radical scavenging assays and a lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced zebrafish inflammation model. Meanwhile, the antioxidative and anti-inflammatory bioactivities and total phenol content of fermented AR (FAR) were compared with the AR processed via traditional hot water extraction. Following this, untargeted metabolomics was employed to analyze compositional differences of AR before and after fermentation. Results: Fermentation significantly improved the antioxidant capacity and total phenol content of AR (P<0.05), that significantly increased DPPH and superoxide anion scavenging activities. Compared to the AR processed by water extraction, FAR had a better antioxidant performance in vitro and higher total phenol content (P<0.05). In the zebrafish experiment, FAR significantly inhibited neutrophil recruitment (P<0.05) and reduced nitric oxide (NO) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels in zebrafish model of inflammation. FAR gave a better performance in elimination of excess NO and ROS as compared to water-extracted AR (P<0.05). The untargeted metabolomics analysis between AR before and after fermentation revealed that fermentation significantly increased the level of multiple compounds with potential antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, including garcinol, syringaldehyde, ellagic acid, bixin, sibiricose A6, 3,4-dihydroxyphenylpropanoate, 4-acetoxyphenol, isorhamnetin3-O-rutinoside and p-coumaric acid. Conclusion: Fermentation with L. plantarum NX-1 can significantly improve the antioxidative activity, anti-inflammatory activity and total phenol content of AR. The enhancement could be attributed to the increasement on relative abundance of bioactive compounds by fermentation, suggesting the significant advantages of fermentation as compared to traditional water extraction in AR processing.