In this study, the effects of four different extraction methods, namely hot water extraction (HWE), ultrasonic-assisted extraction (UAE), enzyme-assisted extraction (EAE) and microwave-assisted extraction (MAE), on the physicochemical properties of polysaccharides from plumula nelumbinis were investigated. The results showed that compared with the traditional hot water extraction, the other three extraction methods could improve the yield, purity and uronic acid content of the plumula nelumbinis polysaccharides, with the microwave-assisted extraction method leading to the highest polysaccharide yield, polysaccharide purity and uronic acid content (4.37 %, 67.85% and 7.10%, respectively). The molecular weights of the polysaccharides obtained by the three auxiliary extraction methods were all reduced to different degrees. The contents of galactose in the plumula nelumbinis polysaccharides extracted by ultrasound-assisted and enzyme-assisted extraction were 16.51% and 9.66%, respectively, which were higher than that (4.93%) of the plumula nelumbinis polysaccharide prepared by the traditional hot water extraction, though no xylose was detected; the microwave-assisted extraction method and the hot water extraction method led to the same types of monosaccharides in the polysaccharides, with the former having a galacturonic acid content of 7.59% (which was higher than that of the latter). The endothermic peak ΔH value and crossover frequency of the plumula nelumbinis polysaccharide obtained via the microwave-assisted extraction were the highest (54.89 J/g and 50.23 rad/s, respectively), and this polysaccharide solution had a higher apparent viscosity compared with the solutions of the other polysaccharides. Therefore, the microwave-assisted extraction method is more suitable for the extraction of polysaccharides from plumula nelumbinis.