ABSTRACT
The extraction and separation of effective components from Chinese herb and natural plant is one of the most important processes of natural medicine production. Recently, more and more advanced techniques have been used in the field of modern Chinese medicines, for example, microwave-assisted extraction (MAE). Developed on the base of traditional extracting technology using by organic solvents, MAE is of higher extraction rate and efficiency and better extract quality, as well as few investment, simple equipment, wide adaptability, high selectivity, good fidelity and no pollution. This paper mainly reviews the action principle and characteristic of MAE and its application in the extraction of natural products such as flavonoids, glycosides, polysaccharides, terpenoids and essence. Otherwise, the developing foreground of MAE is also prospected here.