Room temperature, heat reflux, Soxhlet, ultrasound-assisted and microwave-assisted extractions were employed to extract flavonoids from dry cell cultures of Saussurea medusa Maxim. 24, 20, 6, 0.5 and 0.1 h exposures were necessary for room temperature, Soxhlet, heat reflux, ultrasound-assisted and microwave-assisted extractions to obtain the maximum yield of flavonoids of 3.0%, 4.1%, 3.9%, 3.5% and 4.1%, respectively. Microwave-assisted extraction showed obvious advantages in short duration and high efficiency to extract flavonoids from S. medusa cultured cells.