Abstract: To find out a low cost, low resource-consuming and high efficiency process to extract essential oil from citrus peel, microcapsules along with aqueous two-phase extraction were adopted. Results indicate that the quality of citrus essential oil in microcapsules can be controlled effectively by adjusting the ratio of the concentration of β-cyclodextrin and sodium sulfate; finally, the optimal conditions determined by orthogonal experiment are temperature 30℃, sodium sulfate concentration 15%, β-cyclodextrin concentration 40% and extraction time 30 min, under these conditions, the receiving rate of essential oil is over 96%.