Abstract: The objective of this study was to shorten irones production cycle. Fresh iris rhizome was used as raw material, nitrite oxidation conversion was used as a new method, on the basis of single factor experiments, the data were used to make regression analysis with Design-Expert software, and the extraction process was optimized by response surface methodology. The result showed that, under the condition of extraction temperature 30℃, nitrite concentration at 0.9 g/L, liquid-to-solid ratio at 12:1 (mL/g), the extraction time at 60 h, the extraction yield of irones could reach 0.30 g/kg. In order to confirm the stability of the new process, three parallel experiments were performed with the new method, and the relative error of the method was found to be 3.33%. The new method of nitrite oxidation extraction in the present study could extract irones from the fresh rhizome of iris. And the method was optimized by response surface methodology, which made the method more stable and feasible. It concluded that the new method was worth popularization and application.