Abstract: A process for scrubbing acid gases in which carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide, for example, are scrubbed from gas mixtures which also contain polymerizable organic components, in which an aqueous alkanolamine, such as ethanolamine, is used as the scrubbing liquid. The scrubbing liquid is heated, regenerated, cooled and returned to the scrubber and the polymerizable component or the polymer formed therefrom is removed by treating the scrubbing liquid with an organic solvent which is water immiscible. The extraction treatment by the organic solvent, according to the invention, is carried out after the heating and before the regeneration of the charged scrubbing liquid at a temperature of the latter which is just below the boiling point of the liquid mixture formed by the scrubbing liquid and the organic extracting solvent.