Abstract:The intermittent microwave-assisted extraction of total phenolic acids from?Salvia?miltiorrhiza?and their inhibitory activity on tyrosinase were investigated. Rosmarinic acid and salvianolic acid B were selected as the index components， and the yield of total phenolic acids from?Salvia?miltiorrhiza?was taken as the response value. The optimal process for intermittent microwave-assisted extraction of total phenolic acids from?Salvia?miltiorrhiza?was obtained by investigating liquid-material ratio， extraction time， and intermittent ratio through the single factor experiments and response surface methods. Meanwhile， the technical advantages of intermittent microwave-assisted extraction of total phenolic acids from?Salvia?miltiorrhiza?were evaluated by using their inhibitory activity on tyrosinase. The results show that the optimal parameters for extracting total phenolic acids from?Salvia?miltiorrhiza?were as follows： liquid-solid ratio of 24.5∶1（mL/g）， extraction time of 15.0 min， and intermittent ratio of 1∶1. Under the optimum extraction condition， the yield of total phenolic acids from?Salvia?miltiorrhiza?was 7.84%， and the inhibitory activity on tyrosinase IC50?value was 11.6 μg/mL.The molecular docking results showed that the binding energy of rosmarinic acid and salvianolic acid B with tyrosinase were -8.2， -7.5 kcal/mol（1 kcal/mol=4.184 kJ/mol）， respectively. It interacted with amino acid residues （such as GLY-389， THR-31， and SER-394） around copper ions to form stable complexes and thereby inhibited the enzyme activity.