Abstract: The aim of this study was to develop natural polysaccharide humectant for cigarette. The method of enzymatic hydrolysis was used to extract polysaccharides from coralline algae. Firstly, the effects of five kinds of enzymes on the extraction amount of polysaccharides and their corresponding sensory evaluation of smoking quality were studied. After selecting xylanase as the optimal enzyme, the single-factor experiments were carried out to systematically investigate the influences of enzymolysis temperature, enzymolysis time, enzyme content, and citric acid concentration on the extraction amount of polysaccharides. Finally, four factors and three levels orthogonal experiments were designed to optimize the enzymatic extraction process. The results showed that the optimum conditions of the enzymatic extraction process were as follows: xylanase dosage 0.8% (m/m), enzymolysis temperature 50 ℃, enzymolysis time 3 h, citric acid concentration 0.062 5 g/L. Under the optimal enzymatic extraction process, the extraction amount of coralline polysaccharides reached (661.1±7.8) mg/g. The results of the sensory evaluation showed that the smoking qualities of cigarettes were significantly improved with the addition of an appropriate amount of coralline polysaccharides.