Ionic liquid-based ultrahigh pressure-assisted extraction (IL-UPE) has been applied in extracting five tanshinones from Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge. The influences of different solvents, ionic liquids with different cations and anions, ionic liquids concentration, extraction pressure, extraction time and solid/liquid ratio, were investigated to optimize the extraction process. 0.5 M 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate ionic liquid in ethanol is selected as solvent. The optimum parameters are 200 MPa of pressure, 2 min and 1:20 (g/mL) of solid/liquid ratio. The UPE technique showed highest efficiency in extracting bioactive components at room temperature. The yields of dihydrotanshinone, cryptotanshinone, tanshinone I, tanshinone IIA and miltirone are 4.06, 9.30, 20.3, 37.4 and 0.593 mg/g, respectively. SEM micrographs revealed that after UPE the roots tissues were disrupted, which enhanced the mass transfer of the solvents into the roots and the soluble constituents into the solvents. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.