Flavanones including hesperidin and narirutin constitute the majority of the flavonoids that occur naturally in citrus fruits. The main purpose of this study was to extract valuable natural flavanones from agricultural by-products such as citrus peels using subcritical water extraction (SWE). Thus, the application of SWE to extraction of flavanones hesperidin and narirutin. from Citrus unshiu peel was evaluated, and the effect of key operating conditions was determined by varying the extraction temperature (110-200 degrees C) and time (5-20 min) under high pressure (100 +/- 10 atm). The maximum yields of hesperidin (72 +/- 5 mg/g C unshiu peel) and narirutin (11.7 +/- 0.8 mg/g C. unshiu peel) were obtained at an extraction temperature of 160 degrees C for an extraction time of only 10 min. These yields accounted for approximately 99% of the total amount of these flavanones in the original material. The SWE was compared with three conventional extraction methods in terms of the extraction time and recovery yields for hesperidin and narirutin. The hesperidin yield by SWE was more than 1.9-, 3.2-, and 34.2-fold higher than those obtained by extraction methods using ethanol, methanol, or hot water, respectively, and the narirutin yield was more than 1.2-, 1.5-, and 3.7-fold higher. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.