Abstract: The leaves of Tussilago farfara L.were used as test materials,the total flavonoid of which was extracted by microwave-assisted method on the basis of the results of single factor experiment in order to optimize the total flavonoid from the leaves of T.farfara through the orthogonal experiment.Meanwhile,the scavenging effect of extraction on 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical（DPPH·）,hydroxyl free radical（·OH） and superoxide anion free radical（O■） were measured and determined by spectrophotometry method.The results showed that the optimum extraction parameters were ethanol volume fraction was 70%,microwave extraction time was 3 minutes,ratio of solid to liquid was 1∶15 g·mL^-1,microwave power was 500 W.Under these conditions,the extraction rate of total flavonoid from T.farara leaves was 0.91%.In addition,there was a linear relationship between the mass concentration and the antioxidant activity.The clearance rate could be reached to 84.21%,84.10% and 68.32% corresponding to DPPH·,·OH and O■,respectively,with the concentration of total flavonoids as 0.069 8 mg·mL^-1.Therefore,the total flavonoids from the leaves of T.farfara could have the outstanding antioxidant ability and maybe developed and utilized deeply as the natural antioxidants in the future.